11 Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online, s.v. “prophesy,” http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prophesy (accessed May 27, 2013).
12 Matthew Poole, Matthew Poole’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1700, 1990), s.v. “Romans 12:2.”
13 Matthew Henry, Exposition on the Old and New Testaments (1706), s.v. “Romans 12,” accessed May 27, 2013, at BibleStudyTools.com.
14 New Testament Greek Lexicon, BibleStudyTools.com, s.v. “metamorphoo,” accessed May 27, 2013.
15 Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online, s.v. “transform,” http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transform?show=0&t=1369672069 (accessed May 27, 2013).
Chapter Six
BEING ON THE PROPHETIC CUTTING EDGE
And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.
—2 KINGS 6:1–7, KJV
THOUGH LIFE CAN sometimes throw a curve ball when we least expect it, we still have to remain consistent to what our passions are and what we’ve been born to accomplish. There may be times where we are toiling and laboring in a particular area of our lives and sometimes feel that what we are trying to accomplish is not getting us anywhere. We can become fatigued, restless, and drained if we don’t have the necessary reinforcement and resources to be successful. I know personally in my own Christian walk that I have not been so successful and faithful to what life expected. At times people, places, and things became a priority and not my God-given assignment.
Many believers have found themselves, like I once did, working to pay bills and working to make someone successful; meanwhile your dreams, desires, and passions sit on the back of the shelf until you receive a revelation that it’s time to dust off those dreams and breathe on them again. There are also people who are in their sphere of activity and love what they are doing, but at the same time life throws them a curve ball, which can put that big project or dream on halt until further notice. There are people who have left the very thing they loved and were passionate about only to find themselves in awkward situations and circumstances.
LOSING YOUR PASSION AND ZEAL
The world is constantly evolving, changing, and upgrading to keep up with current trends and the competition. These things can be demanding on a person who has been doing the same thing for years and doesn’t embrace change very well. Meeting high demands in the marketplace and the workplace to reach your own business goals, as well as those in the workplace to assist your employer’s personal and corporate goals, can be discouraging. How many people have felt like resigning, retiring early, or moving on to something else? Well, we have been there, and it’s not good to be doing something great for God and lose your zeal in it. Across the world there are families, marriages, businesses, ministries, churches, leaders, etc. losing their edge because of life struggles.
Usually finances are the key to losing that edge, when in reality God should be the center of one’s joy and strength. The Bible says in Nehemiah 8:10, “The joy of the LORD is your strength.” My question is, If a person has all the money in the world, would that guarantee success, happiness, fruitfulness, and longevity? My answer is no, if it’s without God, who owns the earth, the world, and those who inhabit it. Have you ever lost something and couldn’t find it or fell into a particular sin or struggle and felt like you would never recover from that? Have you ever experienced success and literally overnight lost all that you worked so hard for due to a fire, flood, catastrophic events, or just the unexpected death of a relative, friend, or business partner? Whatever it may have been, we all need some level of peace and joy. It’s not a good thing to build and labor in something and suddenly lose interest in it.
Something had happened in the process of building, laboring, and advancing in that thing that was so important to you. Losing your effectiveness and edge can cause you to become dull, ineffective, irrelevant, and even obsolete. Regardless of what we may endure personally, we must never lose our edge in the midst of personal setbacks, dilemmas, and problems.
PREPARING FOR GREAT EXPANSION
The thing I find interesting about the function of the prophetic is that even if things may seem lost to man with God there is nothing hidden. The prophetic anointing and spirit has the potency to resurrect anything dead, lifeless, and unproductive.
In 2 Kings 6:1–7 Elisha talked about the sons of the prophets, who were understudies and mentees of the Elisha, who I like to think of as the dean, provost, and president of P.U. (Prophets University). The sons of the prophets were in a season where they were preparing for a new construction project and expansion to their residential dormitory to help facilitate critical mass. In addition, in their service and training for their prophetic ministry they had to learn discipline, teamwork, and laboring. While the sons of the prophets were on the job building a new dormitory and cutting wood with an ax, the head of one of the axes fell into the water.
The man who had lost the ax head became distraught because it was borrowed. He cried out to Elisha, and the great prophet performed a miracle. The axe head floated to the surface. The man put out his hand and picked it up as instructed by Elijah.
Now, lest we be too harsh on this poor man who lost the ax head, let us remember that he was engaged in a great work. He was busy! Yet, if there is a flaw in his activity, it is found in this: he was working, but he was not watching! Consequently, he lost the ax head and was unable to continue his work. He had lost his prophetic cutting edge.
THE PROPHETIC BATTLE-AX
In ancient times axes were not just used for cutting wood, but they were used a weapons as well. A prophet has a battle-ax in the realm of the spirit, and when they war, they are very skillful and cunning in their work. A prophet must not lose his ability to fight and contend. The prophet’s ministry and mantle can be mass destruction on the kingdom of darkness and anything that opposes the advancement of the kingdom.
Jeremiah had a weapon of war like the battle-ax. It is prophetically outlined in Jeremiah 1:9–10:
Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and plant.”
We can see in this passage of Scripture that the battle-ax was used “to root out, pull down, destroy and throw down” first before one could build and plant something new. You see, the ax head represents the authority and power to finish the job. No individual can cut down trees by swinging at them with an ax handle. It will take a razor-sharp blade and power to cause the tree to fall. In the church, we need to realize that without our cutting edge, that is, the power of the Holy Spirit, we will never be able to serve the Lord properly, nor will we be able to make an impact in the world and bring societal transformation. We need the strength of the Holy Spirit and His power to get the task done for His glory and cause the kingdom of darkness to be plundered.
Unfortunately, Christianity has become so tied to its traditions, religious manmade systems, and its programs that, for the most part, the cutting prophetic edge has been lost. In addition, there are denominations that refuse to shift gears from the old into the new. This shift is called a paradigm shift. We must change the patterns of our old thought processes and shift into a new, innovative thought process. As kingdom believers, we have
to shift from a my-church-only mentality and to a His-kingdom mentality. It’s imperative that we stay on the front line of what God is doing in the earth. We serve a God of the new. I believe that we must be relevant in the twenty-first century and move in the power of the Holy Spirit to advance the kingdom of God through new kingdom technologies.
It is imperative that the church move along with the times that we are living in to evangelize the world with the message of the kingdom, not the message of our religious systems and governments. The world is out-thinking the church. We must not become obsolete in what we are doing for God.
THE ISSACHAR ANOINTING: PROPHETIC FORECAST
Due to the fact that there are people who will never experience the spirit of liberty in the Holy Ghost, there will be a form of godliness, but they will deny the power thereof. It’s a necessity to have a sons-of-Issachar type of anointing, mantle, and discernment to know what to do in certain seasons and when to act. Let us first define the key words in 1 Chronicles 12:32 (KJV) says:
And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.
• Issachar: The meaning of this name is “he will bring a reward, man for hire.”16
• Men: a person, people (Strong’s Heb582).
• Understanding: Strong’s Concordance explains that understanding means “to separate mentally, to distinguish, be cunning, diligently, deal wisely, be prudent” (Strong’s Heb998), while Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines understanding as “a mental grasp, the power of comprehending, esp. the capacity to apprehend general relations of particulars.”17
• Times: “fortunes, occurrences”;18 fortunes mean “portion, abundance of valuable material possessions, resources, prosperity, destiny, fate, wealth and riches,” and occurrence means “an event, an incident, happenings and circumstance”19
• Know: biynah, “to discern, understand, perceive and consider” (Heb998)20
The Hebrew word for “know” in this verse is yada, which is a word that means God gives the personal understanding and revelation, and it is not a knowing that comes from reading someone’s book for example.21 Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines the word know as “to perceive directly, having understanding or direct cognition of, to recognize the nature of, to be acquainted or familiar with, to be aware of the truth of, to have practical understanding of and possessing confidential information.”22
Furthermore, from the meaning and authority of the name Issachar we see prophetically that those who walk in the character and vocation of Issachar will deliver a sure reward to the Lord, as well as a reward to the sphere of activity they are called to. Their mind is cunning, with the ability and capacity to mentally distinguish between that which is wise and unwise, good and evil. They diligently pursue the comprehension needed to prosper and survive well before the Lord. The prophetic Issachar type of people will receive understanding and divine revelation from the Lord Himself, because they know their Lord intimately.
The Issachar prophetic types are wise and diligent. They are able to perceive and seize opportune times of acquiring wealth, success, and favor. Another key word found in 1 Chronicles 12:32 is the word commandment, which means in the original Hebrew, “the mouth as the means of blowing, particularly speech; to puff; blow away.”23 As the sons of Issachar walk in revelatory understanding conceived out of direct relationship with the Father, the words of their mouth will possess tremendous power, authority, and a measure of grace, which carries the weight of responsibility to lead others.
Let us look at the father, Issachar, the progenitor of the entire tribe. In Genesis 49 Jacob prophesies to his twelve sons, including Issachar, beginning the prophecy in this way: “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days” (Gen. 49:1, KJV). Jacob was very prophetic and a type of an apostle because he was thinking generationally. He prophesied and blessed his sons. He wasn’t only prophesying to them but also to the generations that lived within them, as Jacob was concerned about his posterity and the legacy that would be birthed through them.
Genesis 49:14–15 contains Jacob’s prophetic word for his son Issachar, which we, the church, must grasp. The Issachar type of paradigm will accelerate people to move into the next moves of God’s Spirit without reservation and hesitation. If the church in the twenty-first century does not upgrade in how she ministers the gospel to the world and stay relevant, innovative, and creative, the church will soon be outdated in her efforts to evangelize effectively and bring in a great harvest of souls in this hour. There have to be prophets and apostles working together as a team with evangelists, pastors, and teachers to advance the purposes of the kingdom. We must stay current to the fresh new moves of the Spirit of God. Having an Issachar mind-set invites the revelatory anointing from the Father.
NEVER REMAIN DULL
Just like the sons of the prophets at “Prophet University,” we must know what time it is and accommodate the tremendous growth that is coming. In the midst of building and working, one of the sons of the prophets lost their zeal, strength, authority, power, position, and head. How many leaders have taken a swing at something with all that was within them, and while hitting their target, lost themselves in the process? It is our kingdom responsibility to remain sharp and ready for the next move of God. There are many believers around the world who have lost their edge and have remained stuck in one place, church, teaching, job, etc. They lost their ability to find themselves and get back in the race.
This causes the church, the lives of the believer, and anything we do to lose power. We cannot lose our cutting edge. To be prophetic is not just speaking for God; it is also knowing what to do next. If a person knew what they were to do next, I believe most people would get there faster. Unfortunately, there are times we do not have all of the answers to our destiny, but those answers reside in God. God’s prophetic promises are a sure word of prophecy, and we must walk in prophetic fulfillment of them. To stay relevant, we must stay in relationship with our heavenly Father, who will keep us current. Sadly, most of what we do in the church can be done without the agency or the power of the Holy Spirit. We are so good at what we do that we can operate in the power of the flesh and no one notices the absence of God. I believe that God is going to connect people with different kinds of iron, which represent people who are sharper than you. The Bible says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Prov. 27:17). The prophetic will keep you moving forward and keep you sharp as understanding of the Word of God comes to you.
Let’s take a look at a few scriptures that reveal the power of the spoken Word of God.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
—HEBREWS 4:12
He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.
—ISAIAH 49:2
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
—EPHESIANS 6:17
May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands.
—PSALM 149:6
“Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?”
—JEREMIAH 23:29
In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
—REVELATION 1:16
The double-edged sword can be the double-edged ax head. The prophetic authority and strength is in the ability to prophesy His will and mind. It is very important that any believer, especially prophets of God, know and understand the Word of God. It is useless to hear a prophecy from a prophet who gives y
ou his own words and not the word of God. Prophets are to be interpreters of God’s divine message.
As I was stating, when the sons of the prophets at the prophetic university of Elisha were laboring and working in the ministry, one of them lost his ax head while they were cutting trees. The ax head fell in the water, and then the sons of the prophet knew who to contact. They contacted this prophetic leader, mentor, and prophetic dean to restore that which was lost. The apostolic anointing and grace releases divine godly wisdom, strategy, and patterns to build, while the prophetic anointing gives direction, adjustment, and forecasts what season to build and when to build in the timing of the Lord.
While the sons of the prophets were building to accommodate present and future expansion of the Prophetic University, one of the sons of the prophet lost his fire, edge, his ability to continue to work and establish a place to live. So he sought the prophetic Professor Elisha, who had a reputation in the supernatural and walked in the prophetic inheritance with the supernatural mantle of his father, Elijah. Elisha decided to go to the place where his student lost his prophetic edge and ax head.
DON’T LOSE YOUR HEAD
The axe head also represented the prophetic student. He lost his head! Don’t lose your head in this season. You need it to think spiritually with the mind of Christ. You must not lose control and lose your God-given burden and passion in this hour. This is the season where you have to go back to the place where you may have fallen, repent, and seek the Lord in regard to the prophetic word and promises that He has spoken to you personally and through apostolic and prophetic leadership that God sent you in the past. Go back to the prophetic words and dreams that you may have had in the past. You must go back and meditate on them and allow the word of the Lord to revive you and re-establish to the place of authority and power in the Holy Spirit.
The sons of the prophets lost their prophetic cutting edge, and the prophetic causes a person to live in a new place and move into greater degrees of movement. The prophetic causes you to expand, stretch, and enlarge from the place of comfort and move in a greater place to enlarge in ministry, personally, economically, domestically, spiritually, financially, and mentally. We must enlarge our mental capacity, like the prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:10, and prophetically release the decrees of the Lord to see that which you have spoken come forth suddenly.
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