The Apostle Paul knew where the Lord was leading him and why, so he went on to Jerusalem regardless of many prophetic warnings. In the OT the 50 prophets in training knew that God was going to take Elijah up that day, but Elisha dogged Elijah’s footsteps and received his mantle and a double portion because he was spiritual enough to see Elijah ascend, and because the prophet had been his spiritual father. (That’s why he called “My Father, My Father!” as Elijah left him.)
A little knowledge can be dangerous. Some prophecies are from prophetic “schools” and so are learning to exercise the spiritual gift of prophecy. However, they are not ministry gifts: people who don’t just have the gift of prophecy but are gifts to the church (Ephesians 4:11)
A prophecy ought to confirm what the Lord is already saying to your heart by His Spirit. Some people who speak things over others lack a sense of self-worth and authority over others projects power over those who lack a sense of direction. No directive ought to overrule the personal guidance of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian.
Twenty years ago many women claimed to be prophetesses but were just strong in their own spirits and spoke what less experienced women wished to hear. It’s possible to sit under a genuine prophetic ministry and then prophesy for a time afterwards. But being under someone’s prophetic ‘umbrella’ is not the same as having that gift yourself. And when it lifts you can feel a bit lost spiritually.
Three examples:
Example #1. Whenever I came home from developing countries where the Lord was moving in great power, I continued to do so in the anointing for a week or two in our church and then it would lift.
Example #2. After transcribing an audio tape on the life and ministry of the prophet Roger Teale, the anointing that was on him came upon me and I prophesied over most of the members of two churches. This came because Roger Teale’s thick dialect was from Yorkshire in the north of England and if the article in my magazine was to be accurate, I had to rewind the tape endlessly. In doing so, I ‘picked up’ his prophetic anointing. I realized that I could have continued in that anointing but felt that I would be ‘hitchhiking’. I had learned from Pastor Clark Taylor how to do so, but I was first and foremost a teacher, and so chose to let the prophetic anointing lift from me.
Example #3. While preaching in a small hamlet in the south of Cornwall years ago, I became aware that the message I was preaching lacked the power anointing. Then a thought came to me: Imitate Clark Taylor. Having been Clark’s assistant pastor for a year back in the late 1970s, I was privileged to receive a measure of the power anointing that was on his life. I had unconsciously picked up the way that he moved in the Spirit (though I had not done so consciously). Clark being a “larger than life” character, many of his ministers preached a bit — some a lot –like he did.
So, I began to move the way that he did and spoke a bit like him — and as soon as I did the power anointing layered under my own mantle flowed freely! The atmosphere of the meeting changed and a number of people were impacted by the touch of the Holy Spirit. A longtime friend of ours approached me after the close of the meeting and asked: “What just took place, Peter — that wasn’t you!” I agreed with her and explained what had brought about the change. That’s the only time I’ve copied Clark Taylor’s way of moving in the anointing, but if led again by the Lord to do so, I would not hesitate. Remember that first touch of Elijah’s mantle on Elisha’s shoulders? It was enough for Elisha to “burn all his bridges” (so to speak) and set off after Elijah. “What did I do?” Elijah asked, rather innocuously.
Change back from evangelist to pastor and prophet to teacher was a bit like the fictional Superman becoming Clark Kent again. I knew a man who had a kind of breakdown more than a year after ministering in the church of a powerfully anointed minister, and the last I heard of him was that he was in a sorry state. I hope that he later resumed his authentic life as an excellent evangelist.
So many stories…