THE PROPHETIC CHURCH

This is a follow up to the message, ACTIVATING THE PROPHETIC.

- Only a prophetic church will be able to activate the prophetic.

- Only a prophetic church can put to work what has been activated.

A brief recap on activating the prophetic;

- The greatest need in this season is “Thus saith the Lord”-Hosea 12:13. When men try to speak without the Holy Ghost, they speculate, but with the Holy Ghost, they prophesy.

- You cannot say “Thus saith the Lord” if you have not been with the Lord. One of the essences of this season is to reawaken and rebuild our intimacy with God. If we miss this,  we have missed it. 

The church has been like an army full of civilians,  but God wants an army full of trained soldiers. 

- Our relevance to God and men is tied to our personal intimate walk with the Lord.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROPHETIC CHURCH

1) Intimacy with God. One of the things that have been wrongly defined in our day is the prophetic. The prophetic church is intimate with the Lord. They know His mind, His agenda, and they understand the times in line with His agenda. The prophetic church is God-centred and jealous for God. 

2) They are consecrated to the Lord. Not everything goes. The prophetic church is sold out to the will of God; they are holy, totally set apart for God. It is a church that fears the Lord. (You cannot walk holy if you do not fear God). They are people totally yielded to God. They are not known for what they have ( magnificent buildings, money, status in the society etc ). All they reveal is God. Everything about them expresses God. It is God-centred, not man-centred. Any gospel that plays down on sin and holiness is from the pit of hell. We were saved by grace, and grace empowers and enables us to live above sin. In short,  grace makes us inexcusable. The prophetic church lives to obey Him. The prophet will not go where he has not to be told to go, nor say what he has not been told. The  Old Testament, men "trembled" when they saw a prophet because they knew he represented God and must have a word from the Lord. 

3) The prophetic church is an orderly church, it is not rigid and it is not lawless. Orderliness does not mean being rigid. To be orderly means one is functioning according to the principles of scriptures but in subjection to the dealings of the Holy Ghost. 1 Cor. 14:40, The word of God is the final and supreme authority in the prophetic church. Our guiding principles are all pulled out of the word. It is not cultural, ethnical, or professional.  In rigid churches, their rules and regulations are not flexible. Some in a bid to continue in lawlessness describe bringing order as been legalistic. Both extremes are not found in a prophetic church. In the prophetic church,  encounters/experiences are not put above the word of God. Peter, James and John had an outstanding encounter on the mount of transfiguration. Yet, Peter declares the word of God is a more sure word of prophecy. 2nd Peter 1: 14-21. 

4) The prophetic church is a Spirit-filled church. That is, it is Spirit ruled, Spirit governed, it is open and flexible to the dictates of the Spirit. For the church to be effective, it must come under the influence of the Holy Ghost. Acts 1:8. The church in Acts was a Spirit-filled church. Every time they got refilled with the Holy Ghost, they went on to do great exploits and made progress.  This season is meant for our refilling and refuelling We have tried different methods and gimmicks, it hasn’t helped us. We must come under the influence of the Holy Spirit in order not to be spectators in this season. To see beyond the physical into the plans of God we need to walk with the Holy Ghost.

In this dispensation, our partnering with the Holy Spirit is crucial, to bring to pass God's counsel upon the earth.

5) The prophetic church is a church with a sense of mission. It operates with eternity in view. Anything we are doing that does not reckon with eternity is vanity. It is a church on a journey and it is conscious of it by its lifestyle, attitude, decision etc. The prophetic church has a sent mentality- they are Apostolic in nature. When a prophet shows up,  he fulfills his mission and moves on. He does not sit down and get involved in frivolities. The prophetic church is not frivolous in nature or involved in carnal pursuits. It is focused. 

Examples

Israel- The church in the wilderness, ( Acts 7:38). The first church.  It portrayed a shadow of what was to come. It was meant to be a prophetic church,  but they did not key in. 

#  They were a church on a journey and on a mission. They were on a journey into the Promised Land but they were not conscious of their destination.  If we do not know where we are coming from and where we are going, we will run into untold hardships and crisis. Of all the adults that left Egypt, only two people .made it to the Promised Land.

# They were not intimate with God. 

They were not interested in knowing God but just using Him.  They knew his acts, not His ways. If everyone truly knows God, we would have less crisis. It is those that know their God that will be strong and do exploits. Dan 11: 32

# God fed them daily manna. Exodus 16. 

It is a daily dependence on God. You must live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We cannot fulfill the mandate of God if we do not have a sent mentality. Settling the future is not about putting up structures or saving money. It's living with eternity in view. The daily manna they were fed with was so they would depend on Him daily for everything, it was also because their confidence had to be in God and on nothing else- Deut. 8:3.

To be continued…

Prayer

Lord, I have ears and I hear