Is it simply that it’s a good time to think about the coming year? That is certainly a possibility and not a silly reason for doing so. Is it because one person did it and others copied? That is also, unfortunately, a possibility. Or, maybe, is there something special about these times of the year that causes God to speak more than at other times?

I don’t believe there is anything special about these particular times of the year (Rosh Hashanah – Jewish new Year or our western calendars New Year) although many people do. I know some people will not like my saying that – especially those who follow the Jewish Calendar and feasts, but it is good sometimes to be challenged to take the time to look at and question why we do what we do.

Personally I believe that it is no longer a necessity for us as New Covenant believers to follow the Old Covenant feasts (Gal 4:8-11) – they have interest factor and can teach us things, but our lives should not be based around them. Our lives are to be based on and lived from the New Covenant – what Jesus did for us through his death and resurrection. That is the pivotal thing for us to walk in. I also believe since Jesus’ ascension we have been in a continual season of his favour, under a continual open heaven and place of being able to hear God and fellowship with him.

But back to commenting on the Prophetic words that are being released…

Let’s look at the timing of releasing prophetic words. In the Old Testament we don’t find the Prophets putting out prophetic bulletins to coincide with a particular date. They spoke when God spoke or when God told them to release the word, no matter what day that was. Let me explain that a little further by giving an example from my life. In my prophetic walk there have been words God has given me that I have prayed into for weeks and months before releasing them to do their work. At other times there has been an immediate release of a word in a particular situation. Both ways are valid and done for a reason. Some words that God gives you are only for taking to prayer and may never be publicly released; some are to be birthed in prayer first before being released, while others are to be given when they are received. Part of growing in my gifting as a Prophetic minister is learning to discern which is which.

While I don’t have a problem with the annual prophetic postings, and indeed I do one myself, there is something that does bother me concerning them. That problem is not primarily with the words themselves but is this – I have to wonder whether the Church receives and approaches these missives with a right understanding. If they don’t, that is not primarily their fault but ours, as Prophetic ministers, because we haven’t taught them how to discern, receive and apply them.

So I ask the question, “How do we receive and approach New Covenant Prophetic input like these bulletins?”

This is not an exhaustive look at the subject, but it is a start to get us thinking…

There is no doubt that the prophetic gift is still a gift valued by the Lord today. After all, he says that as part of the New Covenant Body he gave some to be Apostles, Prophets, Teachers, Pastors or Evangelists (1 Cor 12:28). If that is so, then we can expect to hear from those prophetic voices giving us current words from him and understanding on what the Lord is doing or going to do.

But what is the primary role of the New Covenant Prophet? Is it just to hear and share, expecting people to base their walk on what they share? I don’t believe so. I think their function is first and foremost to train the church to hear from God for themselves so that they can minister rightly to those around them (Eph 4:11,12). It is also to hear and share.

Yes, we need the Prophets and what they hear from the Lord – it gives us a big picture view of what he is doing, and that is needed. The problem comes, though, when people begin to base their lives on those prophetic words without first going to the Lord and asking him how it applies to their life. To base our life on what someone else says they heard from God without going to him ourself and asking him how it applies to our life is at best ill-advised, and at worst monumentally stupid and will have consequences for our walk.

What are some of those possible consequences…

• We may not make time to hear God for ourselves – this could cause us to become an ‘easily swayed’ person.
• We may open ourselves, and possibly others, to deception (if we pass these things on to others).
• We may put our faith in what the person says, not in what God has said to us personally.
• If God does say something different to us we may question whether what we are hearing is right or not, and may possibly even disbelieve God.
• The church will end up with people who do not think for themselves but just blindly follow.

So while there is nothing wrong with prophetic people putting out insights regarding the coming year or the present season, do read them with a right understanding…

• That we prophetic people are learning to hear from God just as you are.
• We are not experts who have it all sussed, we are people just like you.
• At best we see partly and dimly (1 Cor 13:12).
• The interpretation and conclusions we come to from what we have heard are subjective and we may or may not be correct.

But has that ever stopped God speaking through human vessels? No! And He will continue to do so.

Don’t just blindly dismiss those prophetic words as having no value now under the New Covenant, God does still use Prophets and prophetic people in the New Covenant. Too many Christians are rubbishing other believers because they don’t understand why they do what they do. If you don’t understand, ask! – that’s the path of wisdom. Don’t just dismiss them or label them – that is just playing into the enemy’s hands.

Just make sure that when you read what we publish that you take it to the Lord and pray about it and ask how or if it relates to your life. Don’t just blindly believe everything you read and certainly don’t base your life and walk on it without checking it out with the Lord.

Will I be doing a Prophetic Insights for 2012 like I have the last few years? Yes, but I do so submitting them to you to weigh up before the Lord. They are what I have heard the Lord speak to me and while I do believe that they have application for all of us, you must take them to the Lord and ask him about how, or even if, they apply to your life. They will be up here on our blogsite, facebook and also our website in the next couple of days. I hope that they do give you some insight into what the Lord is doing in this time.

Some of you may be asking why do I do them at this time of year. Simply, I do it because for me the end of the year is a good time to do a stock-take on this year, and to seek God for the next one. There’s nothing particularly spiritual in that reasoning, sorry.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. May the Lord bless you with wisdom from above (James 1:5, 3:15-17) so that you know how to walk through this coming year.

How do we judge a prophecy and can we judge a prophecy solely by whether or not it comes to pass? Obviously that is a standard many  hold to, yet if we judge every prophecy by that standard alone we have a problem. We are finite people with a finite life span and even in scripture some prophetic words did not come to pass for centuries. Are we to judge a prophecy by setting a time limit or a date by which a prophetic word must come to pass or are there other factors we need to consider? Obviously there are other factors as well that come into play.

If a prophet gives a prophetic word and specifies a certain time when it will come to pass then that does set a time limit on that prophecy; but even then part of the prophetic word can be accurate and part wrong. Putting time limits in prophetic words is always risky, even when you sense God say a time specification. Why? Because God’s sense of time often does not correspond to our understanding of time.

How do we judge a prophecy then? Some simple things to weigh a prophetic word by are as follows:

Judge the prophecy and not the person giving it. (God speaks through people who might not always line up with our preconceived ideas of how a prophetic person should look, speak or act.)

The new covenant prophetic word must be for edification, exhortation and comfort (1 Cor 14:2-4). Because of redemption all prophetic words will be bathed and soaked with Father’s love and heart for that person or people.

• The word must carry the Saviour’s heart and redemptive purpose. There is a huge difference between Old Covenant prophets and New Covenant ones. (Old was under the law – judgement; new is under Grace – love & redemptive purpose)
• The word given will not violate Scripture or God’s character and values. Check – does it line up with the Word, God’s heart, His nature and character?
• Inner witness. Does the Holy Spirit in you witness that this is a word from God? (It is possible for someone to prophesy from their soul – what they see or sense with their natural senses about a person or situation)
• Does the word come to pass? This is not always easy to gauge, as sometimes years go by before a prophecy comes to pass, so for me this is one of the lower things on the list of how I judge a prophecy. It should not be the first thing we go to.
• A prophetic word does not have to be, but may be, confirmed with outward circumstances that come into agreement with that word. eg signs and wonders ¹

All this might make it seem that giving and receiving prophetic words is risky and that it would be better not to have that gift operate. Unfortunately some people and churches have chosen this route. Because of the risk factor they have chosen to shut down the operation of that gift in their lives and churches. Unfortunately this is a knee-jerk reaction, not a scriptural or even a wise one.

Part of the reason it may happen is if pastors aren’t prophetic themselves and they then place a lower value on this gift than others. Another reason is because a lot of pastors don’t understand the gift and don’t know how to pastor prophetic people. So an ostrich situation can happen – if I ignore it maybe it will go away or sort itself out. Not so, but unfortunately that can be some peoples’ viewpoint.

Sometimes the shutting down of the gift or gifts simply comes from the very practical fact of ‘a lot of stuff to do and little time to do it in’ so Pastors can make growing in the prophetic and pastoring the prophetic a low priority.

The gift of prophecy is a very needed gift in the church today, just as it always has been. There is a restoration of that gift happening at the moment and it is being used both in church and out in the marketplace with great effect in peoples’ lives. But if we don’t want to go around the same mountain again and have the same problems happen we must learn to use and pastor the gift with wisdom so that it grows up into its fullness in our lives – personally and in the corporate life of the church.

In order for that to happen part of what we need to understand is that we carry some responsibility in delivering a prophetic word, so in next month’s article I will look at that responsibility .

¹ content from list is taken from “Prophetic Bootcamp” by XP USA.

Two of the Pastors had powerful life changing throne room encounters and experiences in heavenly places. There were visions, angelic visitations, prophetic dreams, healing, drunkneness and laughing in the Spirit, prophetic actions that sparked breakthrough and prophetic declarations that have changed things in the spirit realm over the city.

Wow! God is good and for Rob and I one of the highlights was that we had 5 of the team with us who all ministered powerfully to people. It was funny, one car load of them arrived drunk in the spirit in Rotorua and those three moved from drunk in the spirit to drunker in the spirit over the weekend with occasional sober spells. (my new saying – “drunk is good”) For the team – we had gone to serve but it was a weekend where we got ministered to by God and others, in wonderful ways.

It has been a life changing weekend on so many fronts for everyone who attended. Man, I love that we get to work alongside Daddy in releasing heaven into earth!

pregnant with promise - this was painted as a prophetic word for one of the women who attended the weekend.

Creativity – it’s at the very core of every single person alive, it’s a part of the image of God that He placed within us at man’s creation.

It is always such a pleasure to see that spark of creativity burgeon into life and become something beautiful and wondrous in someones life. This weekend has been such a time as a group of women came together to listen to Papa and paint His heart. We had two glorious days amongst the bush and palms of Titirangi (the fringe of heaven) and there heaven met earth and divine inspiration was awakened and expressed.

Some of the women were very used to expressing the prophetic, some were not, some had used art to do so before but some had not and for them it was a voyage into unknown waters. But they did not go alone, they had encouraging intrepid adventurers along for the journey with them. And of course Holy Spirit danced over us with great joy as Papa looked down and smiled his wonderful smile of encouragement. By the end of the weekend each of the women had taken steps of faith and trust that had opened up new vistas for them and enlarged their territory. Here are some of the photos from the weekend. I obviously can’t fit every picture taken in here but this will give you a taste of some of what was done.

Ascending in Prayer

the beginnings of a beautiful painting of a woman being washed by the Word

a three-fold chord is not easily broken

beginnings of - a woman holding a map walking from a lesser light into a greater one

Identity

Identity crisis – the Church has been in an identity crisis for centuries but God has been restoring the true biblical knowledge and experiential lifestyle of ‘who we are in Him’ to the Church and that restoration has accelerated, especially over the last ten years or so.

This year will be a year of awakening for many. It will be a year where old mindsets are torn down and new ones established. Many Christians will wake up to who Christ is in them and who they are in Him. For some it will be a quick work, as revelation hits them like lightning, but for most it will be an awakening, like the dawning of a day, that happens over a period of time as God roots out false beliefs. As this happens there will be a release of the power of God into their lives that will bring about huge transformation. For some it will be as if this is when they really get saved and they will say that what they knew before was not the real thing, but merely conceptual knowledge.

What is your identity – You are a much-loved son or daughter of God, a co-heir with Christ of all that is in Father’s Kingdom.

Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ…

In Father’s eyes you are as important to Him as Christ is. Your life-purpose is to love Him and let Him love you – utterly and completely until every cell in your body cries “I am loved”. And because you know you are loved that much you can be who you were created to be – a reflection of God, one made in His image.

Col 3:9 …you have put off the old man with his deeds; 10  And have put on the new man, which is renewed… after the image of Him that created him:

Your old life is gone – it has been dealt with completely by His grace as you accepted Christ’s work on the cross and were baptised into His death and resurrection. You are clothed with righteousness and resurrection power, and your identity is now that of a child of God. Your home is the Kingdom of Heaven. You have been qualified as a minister of the New Covenant and an ambassador of that Kingdom.

You were created to, and are now able to, do the kind of things Jesus does and to release His Kingdom into Earth. Just as Christ was, you are backed up with the full resources of your Daddy’s Kingdom as you release the reality of that Kingdom here on Earth.

Will the whole Church walk in this knowledge? I hope and pray so, but unless God does something miraculous in that area I suspect there will still be those who choose religion over living relationship. History has unfortunately shown us that, but I believe God is bigger than history. So let’s continue to pray and believe that God will do miracles.

Let the Lord root out false beliefs in your life regarding who you now are. Be intentional about asking the Lord to expose them and root them out, giving revelation knowledge to replace them, and be renewed in your mind and thinking.

Prayer – “Father let the reality of what You have birthed us into be made plain to each of us. Root out the old thinking that stops us from stepping into and living in the reality of what You have done for us in the Cross. Let our eyes be opened by revelation to the wonder of the reality of Christ in us and us in Christ. Let the freedom You have called us into be fully understood by us, first by revelation, then by our mind. May your freely given Grace permeate and rule every thing we think and do, causing us to walk in freedom and to bring others into that freedom, both in the Church and outside of it.”

Along with this understanding of the Grace we live in will also come an understanding of what we were created for and where we fit in the picture. Many people will begin to find their giftings and step into their calling this year. New ministries will start this year as people step into their long held God-dreams but mostly it will be the so-called ordinary people walking in extraordinary love and power  in everyday life. Being full time in Christian Ministry will not be the dream people aspire to but walking in obedience will be.

Because of this we will see increased evangelism. In the days ahead we will see more ‘living theology” – our lives will reveal the truth and reality of the Word of God.  We won’t just know about the Kingdom but will live it. There is an old saying that ‘we are the only Bible some people will read’. What will our lives tell them?

2 Cor 3:2  You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written in your hearts, to be known and read by everybody. 3  You show and make obvious that you are a letter from Christ…not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

“Father I stand with you and  call forth the Church to her rightful place as sons & daughters of God, those who understand who they are and who you are in them. I see them as they release Heaven into Earth, causing miracles and great signs and wonders to abound. Like you I see them walk in love and power and live their theology. Father I see a people who are sharp of hearing and quick to obey. I see a Church rising up in beauty and power, full of your love and representing you rightly in the Earth. In your authority I call to them now – come forth light bearers, come forth love warriors, come forth and shine as light in the world and release the gospel in love and power!”

Intimacy, Identity and Intentionality.

Over the next few days I will be posting entries that contain prophetic insight into these things. The entries will obviously contain my thoughts but I also believe they contain God’s heart for things that we need to apply in our lives in this coming year and in this season that the Church is in. While I don’t claim to be a prophet I am one of God’s children and, as such, can hear His voice and know His heart. It is from that standpoint that I share these insights with you.

This year has been one of epic shifting and changing, both in the natural and in the Spirit, and that will continue on into the next few years ahead as the Lord awakens and brings the Church into the fullness of her identity as the glorious sons and daughters of the Living God. As He does she will be like the captives who returned to Zion – she will revel in His love with great joy and laughter.

Psalm 126:1-3 When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like those who dream. Then were our mouths filled with laughter, and our tongues with singing. Then they said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us! We are glad!

Epic change era – While we are not yet what we shall become, we are not what we were, either. Things are changing – the Church is in transition. 2011 is recognised by many prophetic people to be a year of transition – transitioning from and transitioning to…

We are in an epic change era; a reformation is happening that will, in the end, be as huge as Martin Luther’s reformation of the 1500’s. Mindsets and theologies are changing as God reveals things that have been hidden in the Word in plain sight, yet missed by most of the Church until now. Over the last few centuries the Lord has been restoring to the Church that which she lost, as church became institutionalized and conceptual instead of living, organic, relational and power-filled. Christianity is again becoming a vital living relationship that releases the power and love of God, and in so doing establishes the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

The Church is coming back to her first love and it is glorious to see and be a part of. What amazing times are ahead of us as we shine as lights in a dark world and release Heaven into earth with great joy and freedom – dancing on injustice, setting captives free both inside and outside the Church and destroying the works of satan.

Isa 60:1(Amplified Bible) Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you--rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!  2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness [all] peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen on you.

Is 61:1   The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Yet in the midst of the great joy and the reformation that is happening the shaking continues….

World systems are shaken, shifted and changed – Things have changed so much over the last few years and the shakings continue as we head towards an epic yet not unforeseen change in the world governmental and monetary systems. The Word of God has already revealed what we are heading into so we should not be surprised by the shakings, as those who were not expecting them. These shakings and changes are by no means over and will even get worse. Because there is still more shaking to come we must determine to step into a place of deep trust in the Lord. Let Him challenge and change thinking that is not in line with His Kingdom.

Allow yourself to look honestly at who and what you look to as your source of supply. Is it your bank account, your employer or even the government? Is your trust really in the Lord to supply all your needs? Every one of us is on a journey of learning that God is good, trustworthy and will do as He has promised. Do not let the devil condemn you for where you are in that journey but rather let your circumstances push you deeper into trusting God and believing His promises. Dig deep into the Word and ask for revelation of His promised supply.

The Lord wakes His bride out of her slumber – Divine discontent is bubbling up as Christians continue to become dissatisfied with ‘church as usual’ and the ‘form of religion’, having denied the power of the Gospel. God wants His church back. He is shaking awake the slumbering bride who has sunk into passivity, cynicism, unbelief and apathy.

Isaiah 52:1″Awake, awake!…O Zion”).

The Lord is getting rid of worldly & religious mindsets in the Church. Allow Him to challenge and change them in you. Be deliberate in asking for that and for revelation of His values, His mindset and His heart.

Declaration – “Wake up bride, wake up you who slumber, stir yourself you who sit in passivity, shake off the stupor and arise. The world waits to see your glory – Christ in you. Wake up Church, wake up! A new era dawns, a new day waits for you to step forth in your fullness as a son or daughter of the Living God. Awake!”

Tomorrow I will release the prophetic insights on Intimacy so come back and read…

• Stars – millions of them flung so far we can’t even see them with our strongest telescopes
• The sea – so much of a wonder in itself even without everything that lives in it
• Fish & Sea Creatures – so many varieties, some still being discovered
• Birds – whose song wakes the plants and tells them to produce food for them
• Fractals – those crazy repeat identical pattern things that are found in so much of what He created like fern fronds etc (the same pattern repeating at progressively smaller scales)
• Green – how many shades of green are there anyway? Grass is different from leaves is different from other leaves and on and on…
• Snowflakes – every one different
• Insects – even the urgh ones
• People – every one uniquely different
• Fingerprints
• Eye patterns
• His love – extravagantly poured out
• Salvation – saved to the uttermost
• Forgiveness – our sin, forgiven and then forgotten
• Grace – extravagantly given
• Favour
• Provision

And so much more…

Then He asked me ”How big am I Lyn? How big will you let me be? How extravagant will you let me be?

He’s a great big extravagant God; who wants to be extravagant to you and through you. Why don’t you take some time out now to ponder on and wonder at the Lord’s extravagance in your life!