As church leaders flow under a prophetic mantle, the maturity and security of the local and global church greatly increases. Church leaders that invest the time to train and raise up a prophetic people, nurture budding prophets and stretch the already mature, place their churches are able to reap tremendous rewards. These rewards strengthen and bless both the local and global church.
The primary benefit comes in the areas of increased spiritual fortifications and a raised guard against demonic strategies. The prophetic thwarts the plans and strategies that the devil uses to target God’s people. It also provides both spiritual and natural strategies to stop, hinder or avoid the works of darkness.
Satan is very afraid of an activated and empowered prophetic people! For this reason, he works diligently against the saints of God to keep them from accepting the prophetic as the standard and the norm within the church. Satan and his cohorts lurk at the door of ignorance and more often than not, enter into the church and the realm of the Holy because few are on their prophetic watch post. A watch that has been limited to the pastor(s) and a few astute prayer warriors.
The enemy accomplishes his strategies through the grey areas of the lack of understanding and through limited knowledge. He loves to strike just below the untrained Christian’s level of discernment. This is assuming that they are trained to walk in discernment. If the local assemblies are not trained prophetically, then unfortunately, by the time the enemy’s hand is revealed, he is well on his way through the demonic inroads of envy, division, and strife, accompanied also by every evil work.
In Acts, 28:3. when the Apostle Paul gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, there was a viper that came out of the heat and fastened onto his hand. As the heat of the fire of the Holy Spirit grows within our churches and our lives, we can expect to see the enemy’s attempts at destruction become increasingly subtle as he tries to sneak in to do his damage. Fortunately, those who have embraced a prophetic mindset are trained to detect even the slightest twitch of the “snake” as he is exposed because of the heat of the Holy Ghost. The true nature is revealed and cannot remain hidden due to the anointing. Apostolic discernment teaches us to spot the enemy before he can warm up and turn to bite us.
Those with a ‘Prophetic Mindset.” who have had their spiritual muscles exercised by reason of use. have trained themselves to quickly spot the enemy. In addition, they are ‘Scripture Heavy.’ and are able to tie in chapter and verse to substantiate what they sense or perceive. A true prophetic mindset will always cause us to balance our discernment of the situation(s) as we sift our revelation(s) through the filter of the Word. Often, when there is a true balance of Rhema and Word, the Holy Spirit will reveal the “very real” situations to you through Scripture. Many times, the scenarios you are experiencing in the natural will have the same components as the stories found in Scripture. The faces, names or background may be different, but the concept will be the same. This is one reason why study of the Old Testament is so important for embracing a prophetic mindset. We must guard against the tendency to study the New Testament exclusively. The Old Testament gives us great insight into how to flow prophetically.
Allow us to share several experiences. While working a secular job many years ago. Prophetess Kathy found herself in a hornets’ nest of demonic infestation. Through prayer, God took her to Scripture that was almost the very same situation she was experiencing. The number of people in the Bible story were the exact number of people in the work situation. Following the plan that was laid out in that story became her warfare strategy. Needless to say, she followed this path to victory. This brings new light to the Scripture Ecclesiastes 1:9:
“… and there is no new thing under the sun.”
Another situation arose within our midst where God began to expose the hidden spirits in operation against us which were working in the church. He was faithful to take us to Scriptures that revealed every aspect of what we were experiencing. This being said, we followed the strategy that was set forth in the Word. We began to pray accordingly and saw God’s victory prevail. The leverage against the enemy on our behalf was exercised when we were able to see prophetically the true intent of what was going on in our midst.
Secondly, knowing what and how to pray with prophetic, pin point accuracy, brings victory to hand. A simple analogy is this, praying without prophetic eyesight is akin to shooting a shotgun at your enemy, rather than shooting at them with a laser sighted rifle. Prayer through prophetically empowered people causes the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous to avail much.
Can you imagine the look on the devil’s face when he comes to knock on your church’s door and sees many prophetic ministers and prophetic teams glaring him in the face! He may come but he cannot stay! Beloved, let us pray that the prophetic voice and mindset be our norm and not an abstract distant thunder. The prophetic mindset and strength of intent gives us the advantage every time.
May God’s Grace Abundantly Reign In Your Lives,
Apostle Ric & Prophetess Kathy Steele
The Prophetic Voice 