Last week we addressed how some general principles about the operation of the gifts of the Spirit may be common, but they are always joined to the unique way that He relates to every person. Every prophet and apostle in Scripture was different, and every person is unique. So we must learn to balance the general principles that we can learn from others, with the unique way that the Lord wants to relate to us, which can only be gained by our personal relationship to Him.

      This leads to another basic truth about the prophetic—every person, every church, and every situation we minister to is unique. Those who receive a word and then try to apply it to everyone or every situation will cause a lot of confusion, at best. Even the Lord, when He spoke to the Seven Churches in Revelation, had a different word for each church. These all existed in the same general area, and at the same time, but they were all different, and all needed a different word. 

     This is not to negate the fact that some words may be for the church in general, such as the word that Agabus had in the Book of Acts that a famine was going to come upon the whole world. This was obviously a word that all churches needed. 

     So how do we know the difference between the words that the whole church needs, and those that are just for one, or maybe even just for one person? Maturity. There is no substitute for experience. I would love to have the gift to lay hands on people and have them instantly mature, but that is not something the Lord has given to us so we must all go through the process.

     In the coming weeks, we’ll be covering many examples of how people received revelations, and also how some were misunderstood, or misused, so that hopefully others will not have to make the same mistakes. The Bible is candid in this way, and we must be too if we want to be trusted with greater authority and revelation. In the increasing intensity of these times, mature, trustworthy prophetic voices will become increasingly important. 

     As we discussed back in Week 13, young prophetic ministries can become confused, especially when the gift of discernment awakens in them, by not understanding that what they are feeling is not their problem, but rather discernment that they are picking up. 

     Remember the following three aspects to properly handling revelation: #1) getting the revelation clear, #2) interpreting it correctly, and #3) the application. I have learned that the Lord almost never wants to embarrass anyone—that is just not His style. As we also discussed earlier, you can really see this in the way the Lord related to the woman at the well. He was very gentle and sensitive, leading her with a few questions, which enabled Him to reveal to her that He knew her and her situation. It was done with so much grace and sensitivity that she stirred an entire city to come out and see the One who had just exposed her sin!

     If we discern someone has a problem like this, you might want to take them out for coffee and gently lead the conversation into how you have been helped with this same problem without even telling them that you know about their problem. Our goal should never be to just show off our prophetic acuity, but rather to help God’s people, and according to Galatians 6:1, do it as gently as possible.

     Many have a concept of prophetic ministry that is harsh, but that is usually because they are trying to model it after the Old Covenant prophets, who were often this way because they were operating under the covenant of the Law, which was harsh. The New Covenant is grace and truth, and the New Covenant prophet will reflect the gracious nature of the New Covenant.