Over the years, I have read books and listened to tapes by and about many prophets. Each has contributed some insight for my own life and calling.
But my favorite story was told by Bob Jones fifteen or twenty years ago. The following is Jones’ story to the best of my recollection:
Jones gave a “Thus saith the Lord” prophecy to his local church that something special would happen at the next church service. When the evening arrived, absolutely nothing happened. Jones went home discouraged and depressed. He jumped into bed, pulled the covers over his head, and said, “Lord, I resign from my prophet’s calling.” Then, he fell asleep.
Sometime during the night, he had a vision. In it, he was standing in the throne room of God. The heavenly Father and Jesus were standing in front of him, and all of heaven looked on.
Jones looked down and saw that he was wearing just a diaper. A horrible odor was coming from the diaper. It was dirty. Warm urine was trickling down his legs onto the golden floors. He thought, oh no! How humiliating! What will everyone think?
The Father leaned over to Jesus. “What’s wrong with our Bob?” He said.
“O Father, he’s messed up something awful!” exclaimed Jesus.”
“We’ll have to increase Bob’s grace policy,” said the Father. Then He added, “Send him back and tell him to prophesy twice as much.”
End of the vision.
Most of us think that when a prophetic voice makes a mistake that he should sit down, keep quiet, and never prophesy again. And we also believe that the Lord agrees with us.
But in actuality, prophetic voices are called by Jesus. These prophetic voices are called to speak when the Holy Spirit moves on them, not when others deem it appropriate or suitable. If they make mistakes, they need to repent and keep on moving. After all, this is what they are trained to do and their callings.
Tip to young prophetic voices: If you can not stand the thought of ever making a mistake when you prophesy, then never step into your callings. Sit in a pew. Keep Quiet. Then, ask God to give your anointing to the people I pray for and work with. They understand grace.
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July 10, 2009 at 9:56 am
[...] (This was adapted from an earlier post.) [...]