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by Robert I Holmes
 Hearing from God has always been important. God spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden, walking with them in the cool of the evening. But he also searched for them and spoke to them after the fall. If you took dreams, visions, revelation and angels from the Bible, you would remove 30 percent of the content. That does seem to indicate the importance God places on communicating with Him.
But how important is hearing from God to you? Do you consider it vital? Imperative? Important? Beyond the reach of ordinary mortals? If I were to audit your life, run a scan across your day would I find you speaking to him over breakfast... at work... in church? Would I find him welcome to speak in various situations of your life or not?
So far as I can see, there are ten basic things we need to keep in mind - ten commandments of the prophetic if you like, that help make it central, alive, active and helpful to us.
Commandment # 1: The prophetic is for everybody
Way back at the start, after the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea and God invited them up the mountain to speak with him he wanted all to access his grace. But they sent Moses instead. One day Eldad and Medad - a pair of nobodies, started to prophesy in the camp and Joshua gets upset about it. Moses corrected his hierarchical point of view saying "Do not be jealous on my behalf. I wish that all God's people were prophets" (Numbers 11:29).
Joel and Acts both point to an amazing day when "I will pour out my spirit on all flesh... and they shall prophesy" (Joel 2:15,16; Acts 2:18,19) and by this he meant all flesh. Saved and unsaved. Holy and unholy. Today in the Middle East for example God is visiting Muslims in their tens of thousands, in dreams at night or in vision. I met a security guard at the border leaving Canada and after hearing that I had been there to preach, pulled me aside and for 45 minutes told me about how Jesus had been speaking to him at night.
It is for everybody - not just shepherds, but sheep as well. Jesus said "My sheep hear my voice" (John 10:3 & 27) and Jesus told all believers "Desire spiritual gifts, especially that you might prophesy" (1 Corinthians 14:1). It is not for the elite, it is not for leadership... it is for everyone.
Commandment #2: Prophecy is life giving
Can you believe the importance of hearing from God, of conversing with him is more important than food or drink? Remember the time Jesus was in the desert, and Satan tempted him to turn stones into bread, Jesus replied, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4).
Recall the time Jesus was speaking to the woman at the well, and had sent his disciples off to buy some food. They return to see she is saved, and Jesus is satisfied. They wonder if he has eaten, and where he got his food from, and he tells them, "My food is to do the will of my Father in heaven" (John 4:34).
The thing about prophecy, like food, is that both those who serve it and those who eat it must take care. For those serving: to make sure they provide food that sustains and strengthens, as Paul says, "Prophecy is for edification, exhortation and comfort" (1 Corinthians 14:3). That is to bring on the straight and narrow, to challenge and inspire, to undergird and empower, to comfort. For those eating, to chew the meat and spit the bones. As Paul says, "Hold fast to that which is good, discard what is evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:19).
Commandment #3: Prophecy is for us to obey
You recall the time Jehoshaphat was facing a huge battle, against an overwhelming enemy and he prayed. He was weeping, I guess in fear, when a prophet called Jahaziel comes up and gives him a word. He had to put the singers and the banner waving women out in front, and God would go before them. So the next day he tells his hardened warriors, "Believe in the Lord your God and you will be established, believe his prophets and you will prosper." (2 Chronicles 20:20)
God does not speak simply for our education. Nor does he titillate our itching ears. no he speaks to build relationships, deepen intimacy and await obedience. The author of Hebrews looks back to that day the Israelites sent Moses up the mountain to speak to God on their behalf... and calls the reader "Today, if you hear him, do not harden your hearts... they the Israelites did in the wilderness." (Hebrews 3:7 & 15)
Jesus underscored the importance of hearing and obeying when he said, "The one who has heard what I said, and does it, this is the one who loves me...we will live with him and manifest ourselves to him." (John 14:21) Obedience is imperative to presence.
Commandment #4: Keep prophecy applicable
If you take a look at the life of an ordinary, church attending Christian they will be exposed to 104 "life changing" messages a year - not including the ones they download from podcast, or conferences and seminars they might attend. Do we really need more volume of teaching, better teaching, clever preaching? No, we have been taught beyond our obedience.
Do we need better theory, better ideas, higher ideals? No, we have theorised beyond our practical experience. The best scientists work theory from evidence, then design experiments to test the theory. Or to put it the way Einstein did, "The best theoreticians are practitioners." What we need, is to move from information to revelation, and from revelation to applied revelation.
Take your average Bible study - where we take a piece of Scripture and endeavour to understand it. What if, at the end of each session, we took what we had learned, and asked God to give us a revelation about it - an "ah ha" moment - in the heart. What if we dwelt on the passage, camped there until it got inside us? Once we had that, what if we asked God for a way to make that real in our life - how does it apply, what am I going to do to respond this week? The fourth step - accountability is truly that most difficult. Letting someone ask us how we did with that!
Commandment #5: Keep prophecy useful
When Jesus was speaking to his disciples about leaving, he consoled them with the thought that they would not be left alone. He was going to send the Holy Spirit, and he would assist us in many ways. He described difficult days we would have, days when leaders, and bosses would haul us before them. "Do not worry about what to say in a tough spot, because I will give you what to say" (Matthew 10:19 paraphrased)
Prophecy was designed for tough spots. Hearing him was meant for really useful tasks. Like the day men committed a felony at Peter's house, tore his roof open and dropped their mate into the house. Matthew described that day, telling us how Jesus saw their faith, and told the man his sins were forgiven. Then, "Jesus, knowing what [the audience] were thinking [in their hearts] addressed their question" (Matthew 9:4)
I do life coaching three days a week. One of my most enjoyable, and challenging clients was a bio-chemist - a highly capable and intelligent person who had fallen upon hard times. Genie had a truly tragic story, and had been abused by people in authority - so she was finding it hard to be counselled. During my time with her, the Holy Spirit reminded me of a term in Malcolm Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point", he called this woman a 'maven'. Then he told me, "She is an INTJ on the Myers-Briggs personality profile", and later "She is a pattern seer, she can notice the way things flow." At the end of the session I asked her permission to summarize all she had told me - and shared these pieces of revelation about her. With great surprise and delight she exclaimed, "You Found Me!" just like a kid playing hide-and-seek.
Commandment #6: Practice, practice, practice
Many of my children do drama, arts and music. Having listened to them practise for years I have come to conclude that practise does not make perfect. Perfect practise makes perfect. Otherwise you just keep relearning and reinforcing your mistakes.
I think about the disciples being taught about the kingdom, healing and deliverance then sent out two by two to have a go. Coming back, debriefing with Jesus about how it went, being corrected and going out again. Practising the kingdom. I recall the time Peter, James and John come down the mountain with Jesus - and find the other nine having a go at casting out a demon from a boy. They fail, but they've had a fair go, and Jesus shows them, "This kind only comes out by prayer and fasting".
I hang out at Grace Canberra and the Home of Glory in Canberra - and we do prophetic activation times regularly. For several hours we have a go: practicing prophecy, learning discernment, pushing ourselves into different circumstances and situations. Paul encouraged us "Having gifts... then let us use them! prophecy, in proportion to our faith," (Romans 12:6). In describing a normal church service he says, "When you gather, let two or three prophecy and let the others weigh what is said." (1 Corinthians 14:29)
Commandment #7: Go deeper, go wider
Some people have quite a narrow view of the prophetic, as though it were just for word of knowledge, or for predicting stuff. The Bible paints a very wide picture of the way God speaks, and what he uses prophecy for. Space does not allow me here to make a summary of 30% of the Bible but let me just sketch a few examples.
Prophecy was designed for seasons: Joseph helped Pharaoh understand his dream, prepare for seven years and make use of grain mills. The sons of Issachar understood the times and seasons, and knew what Israel should do. They helped David's army. Agabus forewarned about a drought in the region, and the apostle Paul took up offerings everywhere he went to assist the church in Jerusalem.
Prophecy was designed for spying: Elisha saw into the planning chamber of the King of Aram, and continually warned the King of Israel about ambushes and war dangers. I would have relegated this story to history, except for first hand accounts of the ways in which God used friends of mine to speak to US presidents during the Gulf War I Desert Storm campaign, and warned about the 9/11 attacks.
Prophecy was designed for signs: During the drought in Samaria Elisha had the elders over for lunch. He told them tomorrow's market price for flour and barley - greatly below todays price. Again this might be a piece of interesting trivia except that time and again he has told us about the spot price of gold, the fall of the stock market GFC I and II and other activity.
Commandment #8: Meta everything
Have you noticed that the word 'meta' is turning up a lot in the media recently?
- meta analysis (the analysis of many analyses);
- meta genomics (the study of all genetics in the biome);
- meta physics (the first principles of being, identity, time);
- meta narrative (the story running through the stories).
The Greeks (from whom we borrowed the word) used meta if something came along with, among, behind, within or through something else. So how about meta prophetic?
- let's have prophetic at home (teach your kids);
- prophetic at work (word of knowledge at life coaching);
- prophetic in church (hearing from God as well as the pastor/teacher!).
Commandment #9: Take it viral
OK so this idea of communicating runs from Genesis to Revelation, it is for saint and sinner and God is intent on speaking to us. It is for all flesh, and He wants it everywhere. He also wants it every-when... it is for "old men dream, young men see visions" - each generation.
Ideas and teachings are very hard to get to stick - in your audience right now, let alone across several generations of people. Research has shown that only 10% of the spoken words is remembered three hours later. words with pictures have a 65% survival rate but even that falls to 10% by the next day. It is very difficult to get ideas to cross generations.
Yet Paul wrote to his protege Timothy "find faithful men who are able to teach others what you have learned from me" (2 Timothy 2:2). That is four generations - a multiplying factor. not just addition (I tell you) and subtraction (your forget) but rather it is viral. The objective here is to make disciple making disciples.
I told you about the Home of Glory guys before - well I taught Geoff a bunch of stuff about hearing from God, and he taught Terry, who took it to the school he teaches at and raised up some year 10's. Or CJ, who took the idea across to his job at the Senate and started to teach his workmates about hearing God's voice during lunch times.
Commandment #10: Keep the right focus
With all this talk of visions and angels, it is easy to forget the focus of revelation. Jesus warned us that at the judgement seat a litmus test would be used. Some will hear the dreadful statement, "Get away from me, I never knew you". I was not familiar with you, we did not abide together, we never conversed or became intimate.
Relationship with God is the aim, not prediction or prophecy. It is all about him. John summed it up well when he recorded the words of the angel in heaven, "Worship God, for the sport of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus." (Revelation 19:10).
He is all about the lost. his eye is on them, and he wants to woo them, drawing them with his mercy. For this reason Paul, in describing how church should be, said, "When you are together, prophesying and an unbeliever walk in, they will be convinced by all, and convicted, and fall down and worship." (1 Corinthians 14:24,25)
One of the most precious people who have done the training at Grace Canberra is Jan - a retired lady who lives alone in a village. She was very taken with the series we did on treasure hunting - prophetic evangelism modelled by Kevin Dedmon from Bethel. We call it "divine appointments" set up by God. Take it out there!
In summary
1. The prophetic is for everybody. All flesh: men and women, young and old, saints and sinners, leaders and followers.
2. Prophecy is life giving. It is more important than food or drink. Both those who serve and those who eat must be careful.
3. Prophecy is for obeying. God expects us to do something with what we hear. Obedience is central to presence.
4. Keep prophecy applicable. The best theoreticians and practitioners. Move from information to revelation to applied revelation and make yourself accountable.
5. Keep prophecy useful. It was designed for tough situations, for helping people, and for digging out what's really in their hearts.
6. Practice, practice, practise. Perfect practise makes perfect. Have a go and don't be afraid to make mistakes. Having gifts then let us use them.
7. Go deeper, go wider. Prophecy is not just word of knowledge or prediction. It is for understanding seasons, for spying and for a sign.
8. Meta everything. The prophetic belongs in everything. God is speaking at home, at work, in church - but is he being heard?
9. Take it viral. Not just all flesh in all places, but at all times. 4 generations beyond yourself.
10. Keep the right focus. Prophecy is all about Jesus. Jesus is all about saving sinners. The lost should be surprised by prophecy, and encounter Jesus.
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