We need more prophecies in our churches to seal God’s approval on “sent out” ministries. God always has something to say, and prophetic direction is very helpful to those who are being sent forth to reach the unreached in “regions beyond”.
Or maybe confirm the faith of new believers in recently planted churches so as to assure them of God’s presence and power in their midst. How church leaders do so without the element of prophetic direction is not only questionable but unscriptural.
“Oh, but the Scriptures will provide that”, some may say. But a “famine for the word of God” is not an absence of the knowledge of what God has done in the past, but a lack of knowledge of what He desires to do in the present. A 400-year gap existed between the Old and the New Testaments. God’s people had the Torah and the Tanach, but no one had a “rhema”: a Living Word from the Lord to provide some prophetic direction.
God’s “daily bread” for us is “a word from the Word” — a particular “rhema” revelation from a general understanding of the recorded “logos” we know as The Holy Bible. A “famine” of the Word of God is not a prolonged absence of the recorded Word but a “famine” of daily revelation of the “be it unto me according to Your Word” Luke 1:37 kind, which the virgin Mary received. It ‘leaps off’ the pages of your Bible by God’s Spirit into your heart.
It will be harder to disbelieve than it is to believe, since it differs from the unbelief that comes while trying hard to believe what comes during prayer or while reading the Bible or is preached in church. It feels to me as though I am standing on a platform, the planks of which are Bibles; so great is the assurance that comes with a “rhema” [word of] revelation!
Luke 1:37 is as simple as it is powerful: “Every real-time word from God carries within it the power to create what it describes.” A word distinct from one that remains a thought, which is not passive in the mind and invisible to the eye, but a revelation spoken from the Lord to the heart, one that brings absolute assurance!
This is where prophets come in. Not prophetic ‘cowboys’ casting ‘loops’ over immature Christians but recognized ministries able to speak God’s intent with strong conviction in words that resonate with authenticity.
I am not a prophet, but in the absence of one, the Lord has at times used me to set things in order in churches, or to stamp approval on Divinely inspired people and to ratify genuine projects.
Prophetic direction never overrides personal guidance, but it can fine-tune detail or provide overall context to leaders who are so lost in the detail they “can’t see the wood for the trees”.