Partnering Intentionally
I remember the first prophetic word spoken over me when I was newly baptized in the Holy Spirit. It made me feel warm and excited on the inside, and I dutifully wrote down the gist of the words when I got home. Over time, I added to that entry the ensuing prophecies spoken over me and also over the Aglow Lighthouse and then Area Team I led.
Each year, my diary of prophetic words grew as I added more. From time to time I would go back and read them again, feeling pleased that the Lord would send people to me who would call me out with great words.
One evening at church, though, a new evangelist came through. It was a small Wednesday night service and my husband and I squeezed into the empty back row. The evangelist stopped what he was saying in midsentence and stared towards the back. “You, you, ma’am in the blue jacket with the dress on, please stand up.”
I looked around, wondering who the woman was. The evangelist stated his request to the woman in the blue jacket again, slowly and deliberately. My husband nudged my arm and I noticed the light blue jacket I was wearing with my dress…so I gulped and stood. “Sister, the Lord says that He has given you many words of prophecy over the years.” I nodded in agreement. “But He says now is the time to quit just collecting those words. It is time for you to start acting on them. There are people who are not moving because YOU are not moving.” It was an electric moment for me. Instead of just memorializing all the prophecies I had collected, I was supposed to actually move upon them. I had been treating them more as museum pieces instead of marching orders.
Graham Cooke says:
We cannot be a people who, every time we gather, just celebrate the words that God has said over us. We are learning to be a people who starts to live the words that God has said to us because God wants to hear you say, ‘this is that which was spoken’. He wants to hear you say it. He wants to hear every one of you say it. He wants to hear us sing a song about it. We are in what God spoke to us all, this is that, our whole future is opening up and prophetic words long spoken are now being realized in our midst. This is that which was spoken. See, your lens is being changed, and your thinking is going to change and your language is going to change and we are going to dramatically change. This is our time. We have served our apprenticeship, God trusts us.
I Peter 1:13 So prepare your minds for action, be completely sober [in spirit—steadfast, self-disciplined, spiritually and morally alert], fix your hope completely on the Grace [of God] that is coming to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Practical Application
In Graham Cooke’s 2017 Sunday morning message at the Jubilee conference, he said, “Our attitude and approach to promises and prophetic words can hasten or delay their fulfillment.”
