Chapter Eight
PROPHETIC DESIRE
Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts but especially that you may prophesy. . . . Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues.
—1 CORINTHIANS 14:1, 39, NKJV
DESIRE IS SOMETHING that can be good or bad based on the motivation of one’s heart. Many of us through life have desired things, whether it be a new car, house, job, husband or wife, children, money, clothes, food, or whatever it may be personally. Everyone in life has at one time or another desired something that someone else may have. Regardless of the reason for wishing for something, that particular desire was something on your heart and mind.
Most people fulfill what’s on their heart and passionately pursue their desires by any means necessary. There are godly desires and demonic desires. Even throughout the Bible, God warns us about having earthly, fleshly, carnal desires, called lusts of the flesh, passions, a spirit of covetousness (Gal. 5:16–25). These things are contrary to His spirit and war against the spirit. Because the spirit is against the flesh—they are contrary to one another—that a person will not do the things that they wish. There are godly desires, burdens, and appetites that a person can possess by the Spirit. Godliness and moral purity is needed to operate in any gift.
In Romans 8:5 it says, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what that flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” This Scripture reveals that a person will do what is in their heart and mind. A kingdom believer must fix their mind to be passionate about the desires of the Lord. Does God give you the desires of your heart? Yes, and even more. It may be different plans or desires than you ever thought you wanted. He has extraordinary plans when you simply put Him first in your life, but you must be cooperative with the Spirit of God. He will cause you to walk by the Spirit and fulfill the desires of the Spirit. So in other words, if one is sinful, then they will commit acts of the flesh. Consequently, those who are spiritual will mind the things of the Spirit, committing to pleasing the Lord in their lifestyle and conduct.
A HOLY DESIRE
The prophets of old were holy men of God. The messages and prophetic words in them carried a holy indignation, discontentment, righteousness, and burden of the Lord. Note that I said they were holy men of God. A person may have desires and passions, which is the Greek word epithumia.26 This word is from the Greek word thumos,27 from which thermos and theromostat are derived. These words combined indicate a “temperature” that may rise to the degree that these burning desires and passions must be regulated and directed for proper spiritual investment into godly purposes instead of carnal and fleshly desires. We must redirect and channel our passions and desires for the glorification of God.
If one is going to desire anything, it should be for spiritual things and not carnal things. We must walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lusts (desires or passions) of the flesh.
In other words, to walk in the Greek (stoicheo) means to “walk in line.”28 As believers, we must walk in line of the Spirit, and with prophesying it must also be in line with the logos, the written Word of God. When a person prophesies, those prophetic words also must be backed up by the Word of God. Have you ever received a prophetic word and it didn’t sound right in your spirit? You knew that it was not in line with God’s Word, and something was unsynchronized. Likely, this individual’s prophesying life may not be in line with the Spirit and with the written Word of God. In other words, you know that they were in their flesh, or they gave a carnal, familiar, or sensual word that was contradicting to God’s Word. It is imperative for prophets and prophetic people to have sound biblical doctrine. If one’s doctrine is off, more likely they have limited revelation of God’s Word. In such cases the prophecy will be off, sounding flakey.
In addition, you can tell when someone is walking in the Spirit and has foundational truth. When they prophesy, it carries the authority of God. I will address later in the book the connection with false prophets, prophecies, and how to recognize them. In this chapter we will talk about having a prophetic desire to prophesy.
NO SELFISH PERSONAL PROPHECY
Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him.
—PSALM 37:3–7
We must desire what God desires, so that He can give us the desires of His heart and not just ours. The Bible says that God wants to give us the desires of our hearts; He didn’t put any restrictions on that statement other than we understand the desires cannot be sinful. What might be one person’s desire, another person might judge as sinful based on their belief system or religion, as in the eating of meat or working on another man’s sabbath.
I remember prophesying on the prophetic team at my local church along with my twin brother. We were ministering to these women, and God had given me a word of knowledge about a man who had left her. I went on to say that God was going to send her another who would make her happy and that this relationship would be the will of the Lord.
The woman stopped me dead in my tracks while I was prophesying and began to ask us questions about her ex-husband who had left her for another woman. She stated that she was hurt but that she wanted him back. She wanted to know if the Lord was going to send him back to her. At first I was upset because I had never had this happen to me before; usually I would take questions after the ministering if a person had a question or wasn’t clear on the prophetic word.
Furthermore, this woman’s only reason for coming in the prophetic line was to hear a word about her ex-husband and not about her calling, destiny, and purpose. She was more concerned about him leaving her for another woman and was asking dozens of questions as if we were physics. I told the lady that God is her husband, and He wanted her back. In addition, I told her that God was going to send her another who would love her and make her happy. If she would have listened to the prophetic word and the instructions that followed, she would have heard that God was doing a new thing in her life, to include that He was going to send her a new husband who would love her the way she was meant to be loved.
God does restore marriages and whole families, but my point is that the woman’s desire and focus was directed on the past and on someone who did not want her anymore. God was using my brother and me to reveal the Father’s desire to this woman. The words of knowledge about a man leaving her triggered a sensitive area and caused her to focus on that and not what God desired for her future.
A prophetic word from the Lord has the power to realign and redirect our passions to the Lord’s passions. Our desires have to be God’s desires, and His desires must become our desires. Accordingly, we come to desire that which He desires for our lives. Sounds like a tongue twister, huh?
What is most interesting to know is that out of all the spiritual gifts, prophecy is something that a believer should desire, especially while pursuing love as the purpose and intention to operate in these giftings. The Bible says that we can desire earnestly to prophesy. In other words, with a pure, genuine, and loving heart a believer can covet the gift of prophecy.
It is very profound to me that prophecy is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that can be desired. My point here is that we have been given the Holy Spirit as a gift from the Father, and along with the Holy Spirit’s gifts, one of them is prophetic utterance. Prophesying is unique in itself in that a believer should be able to function in this because we have the Holy Spirit working on the inside of us. If a believer can yield his or her natural faculties to the Holy Spirit’s unction, then they can function in prophetic utterance. The Holy Spirit has a desire as well, and that is to be used by you to empower others.
LOVE
SHOULD BE THE MOTIVATION TO PROPHESY
The Bible says it God’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. In other words, it is the Lord’s desire to give us our inheritance. It is the Father’s heart to give His children good things, if they ask for them. Even a wicked father knows how to give good gifts to their children; they will not give them something evil, even though they may be wicked at heart, if their children ask for something good from them. Moreover, it’s the Lord’s desire that we will not perish but that we have eternal life. God did not create hell for His people; hell was created for the fallen angels and those who desired to live independently without God. That decision became the very place that the spiritually disconnected will spend eternity.
Love is the primary character of prophecy. First Corinthians 14:1 says, “Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts but especially that you may prophesy.” One chapter back, 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 reveals the primary character of personal and corporate prophecy. It can be found by substituting the phrase “personal and corporate prophecy” for the word love in 1 Corinthians 13. What would be the pretense for doing this? Personal and corporate prophecy is particularly connected to the person, testimony, and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know this from reading the following verse:
And I [John] fell at his feet [the angel] to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
—REVELATION 19:10, KJV
Jesus is Lord, God is love, and the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus Christ, who is God and who is love. Therefore the truth about Daddy God is that He is love. This needs to be understood, because much of the prophetic is released in a harmful, harsh, and bitter way. Here is a basic test for all personal and corporate prophecy: Is it spoken in the spirit of love and in the integrity of God’s Word as defined in the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians? We must define love this way, because there are many definitions of love. I’ve have witnessed familiar, presumptuous, blasphemous, and unkind denunciations given prophetically as “tough conditional love” when it had nothing to do with the love defined in 1 Corinthians 13.
First Corinthians 14:1–3 outlines to us that prophecy is simply for edification, exhortation, and comfort—not rebuke, correction, reprimand, or repudiation. The only example biblically we have of this other kind of prophecy was when the disciples of Christ wanted to rebuke some people who weren’t following them. Jesus proceeded to tell them they didn’t know what spirit they were of. This is because these disciples were operating under an old covenant mind-set and the paradigm of the law of sin and death, not the new covenant mind-set and paradigm of grace and truth.
First Corinthians 13:4–7 shows what personal prophecies should entail when given:
• Personal prophecy should bring hope, unity, and peace of God.
• Personal prophecy is given in the Spirit of truth.
• Personal prophecy is honest.
• Personal prophecy offers clear instruction, directives, and wisdom.
• Personal prophecy is direct.
• Personal prophecy is anointed.
• Personal prophecy is patient.
• Personal prophecy is kind.
• Prophecy does not attract attention to self but to God.
• Personal prophecy should not be for financial gain as the sole purpose.
• Personal prophecy does not deceive.
• Prophecy does not condemn, discourage, discomfort, or tear down.
• Personal prophecy is not condescending.
• Personal prophecy does not bring envy, division, or jealousy.
• Personal prophecy does not boast and draw attention to oneself.
• Personal prophecy is not proud, arrogant, conceited, or puffed up.
• Personal prophecy does not dishonor, belittle, or take advantage of others.
• Personal prophecy is not self-seeking.
• Personal prophecy is not easily angered or short tempered.
• Personal prophecy always protects, perseveres, covers, and enlightens.
• Personal prophecy reveals Christ and His love.
As we can see, as a kingdom believer we are instructed and admonished to desire spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit, along with pursuing love. One cannot operate in the spiritual gifts of the Spirit without love at the forefront. With the pursuit of love come the gifts of the Spirit.
JUDGING PERSONAL AND CORPORATE PROPHECY
In 1 Corinthians 14:39–40 Paul was addressing the abuse of spiritual gifts in the Corinthian church and explaining how to operate in order during a service. Paul was not quenching the activity of the gifts of the Holy Spirit within the assembly of believers, but he wanted integrity and oversight to be in place. He desired them to operate in the gifts of the Spirit, as today we should also operate in all things decently and in order.
Furthermore, his word was specifically for those who were prophets and had the gift of prophecy resident in them. The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. In other words, if two or three prophets believe they have an inspired, revealed word of the Lord and desire to share it openly before the congregation, they can do so in order one by one as the others judge. The spirit of the prophet is under the control of that prophet. The word subject in Greek is hypotasso, which literally means “to submit to one’s control,” and the word suggests obedience, submission, cooperation, subordination, subservience, and subjection.29 In other words, the spirits of the prophets are to stand under the prophet who is prophesying within a local body of believers specifically.
The prophetic gift of utterance can also be put under the control and responsibility of the prophetic possessor. It is the prophet’s spirit that can be governed and controlled at will.
I believe we shouldn’t wait until we get fifty, sixty, or seventy years old to desire to prophesy. In my ministry we have activated three to twelve year olds in the prophetic and the supernatural. It is our desire to equip, train, activate, educate, and impart into the next generation the ability to move in the supernatural power of God and prophesy the word of the Lord. I have found in the younger generation that they are more open to releasing the word of the Lord and move in greater faith for miracles because they are not religious, nor too intellectual not to believe God for signs, wonders, and miracles.
This is a trait the early apostles shared. These apostles of the Lamb were unlearned men and had not been to the religious schools of Jesus’ day. They were ordinary men who produced the extraordinary power of God, which drew the attention of the religious scholars, scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees. This is good news for the body of Christ. Most people have not been to the schools of thought or seminary on how to heal the sick, raise the dead, and prophesy. There is nothing wrong with further education in the area that one is called, but it’s not the prerequisite to producing miracles. The only belief system and paradigm that a person needs is faith in God, who can do the impossible.
I love to see the next generation of radical youth minister before the Lord and observe the extreme faith they possess to believe God for unusual or unprecedented miracles. It’s the adults with all that knowledge and information who struggle to just believe God for miracles. There is no chronological age to desire and to operate in the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s gifts are available to those who believe and have the faith to do the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. One does not need years of education in theology to operate in the supernatural power of God. It is only by faith that a person is filled with supernatural wisdom and the ability to act and speak as an oracle for Christ. Are you willing to prophesy at a greater level and release what is on the heart of our King? It is my prayer and desire, like Moses, that many will prophesy and be prophets by the Spirit.
All those in authority within the church should desire to see their people raised and mature in the gifts of the spirit, b
ut more importantly there is love, faith, unity, peace, and joy. Bad character produces bad fruit and prophecies. Further, we must understand that our desires and passions should be for more of Christ in us than looking for signs, wonders, and miracles. If there is more Christ, the hope of Christ resident in us, then we can see tangible miracles daily.
We need to keep in mind that whenever you receive a prophecy from the Lord by a prophet or prophetic believer, the prophetic word is God’s desire and thought toward you. What is the definition of the word desire? According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, the word desire means “strong wish, longing, formal request for action, something desired, long or hope for, exhibit or feel desire for.”30
PURSUE SPIRITUAL GIFTS, ESPECIALLY TO PROPHESY
The biblical type of desire is expressed by the Greek word zeloo, meaning “to be zealous for, to burn with desire, to pursue ardently, to desire eagerly or intensely.”31 The negative definition of this word is associated with strong envy and jealously. (See Acts 7:9; 17:5; 1 Corinthians 13:4; James 4:2.) God is not calling us to be jealous, envious, and to covet each other’s gifts and calling. Instead we should desire, pursue, covet, and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.
Prophecy and the prophetic ministry was the life of the New Testament church. They were blessed by the presence of God when the prophetic utterances in operation released the gift of prophecy. As the apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 14:1, 39, pursuing love as our primary pursuit, prophecy is to be embraced for the edification, exhortation, and comfort of the congregation, both corporately and individually.
The practice and exercise of the gift of prophecy is encouraged by the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 4:11. I like this passage of Scripture because it encourages believers in prophesying as the oracles of God. First Peter 4:11 (NKJV) says, “If anyone speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” The scripture says that if anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracle of God. In other words, if a person prophesies by prophetic utterance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, let him speak like God is speaking or prophesy with the ability that the Lord supplies to you so that Christ is glorified through you. If a person is going to minister prophetically, one must prophesy with dominion in Christ and speak the oracles of God as if God is speaking. There is nothing like hearing a word of the Lord spoken through a prophet who speaks the oracles of God, as if God were speaking Himself. There is a different effect when I prophesy to people like God is speaking. Usually there is a strength and strong authority on a prophet’s words that is stronger than when they are speaking in third person. However, there is nothing wrong with speaking as a prophet or prophetic believer in the third person to share what God is saying through you.
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