Prophetic Ministry: an interview with John Paul Jackson
How can this be lovingly communicated in the church?
Hunger for the things of God makes all true and vibrant things from God palatable. I believe that if the church can see a model of prophetic ministry that has integrity, character, love, humility and teachability, as well as leadership that holds the accountability and the maturation process in balance, they will embrace revelatory giftedness. Moses was an example of this.
Moses was a highly gifted man. He saw the glory of God, talked with Him face-to-face, was used to perform mighty signs and wonders—and yet, when God told him that he had found favor, he still asked the Lord to show him His way, that he might know Him (Exodus 33:12–13).
No matter what our gifts are or how gifted we are, we need to know the ways of God. Too many of us know about Him; few of us actually know His ways. The journey into understanding the prophetic, and helping those who are prophetic understand themselves, includes teaching people the ways of the Spirit, which are the ways of God, who is Spirit. We do this so that we might know Him and find favor in His sight.
The church must realize that prophetic ministry has a maturation process. We give the pastor time to mature, as well as the teacher and evangelist. We actually have seminaries and Bible schools that do this. We even allow the apostle time to be trained and matured. However, for some reason, many churches do not allow the prophetic voice the same privileges.
We at Streams Ministries have developed a vast array of training materials on the ways of God and prophetic ministry. Over the years, we have trained more than 50,000 students in more than a dozen nations. Our materials have been translated into nine different languages. I have seen thousands of individuals who have gifts, but I am no longer impressed by their gifts. I am impressed with those who have character as well as gifting. If I had to make a choice between a highly gifted person without character and a person who had great character and no gift, I would choose the person with character and no gift every time.
Having said that, I must also say that the journey to discovering true, genuine and honorable prophetic ministry is a journey that will take you right into the center of God’s being. In this place, His Spirit searches for deep things to reveal to us. They are secrets only those who yearn to know His ways will find, for all revelation comes from Him and through Him and goes back to Him. By this, the cycle is completed, and He brings to pass what He said He would—in other words, our will has become His. In finding true prophetic ministry, you find God’s desire for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. It is a remarkable, paradoxical journey. It is more difficult than you can think and more wonderful than you can imagine.
PR
© 2007 John Paul Jackson, Streams Ministries International. All rights reserved. For more information, visit www.streamsministries.com.
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