Prophetic Office.
Excerpt from: Prophetic Key 9The Prophetic Key
10 So we come now to the prophetic key. What is it? We have looked at the keys of the Kingdom.
11Specific Key for Prophets
12 The prophetic key is one of the keys of the Kingdom, but is a specific key of the Kingdom. It is a key that God reserves for those whom He has called to the office of a prophet. I emphasize the office of a prophet, not the ministry of the prophet. God has given us a lesser key, each one of us as believers, that we may enter into a degree of releasing His authority; of exercising some of those keys that we saw that Peter exercised. We have the authority to bring people into the Kingdom of God. We have the authority to get people born again and saved. We have the authority to speak healing.
13 These signs shall follow those who believe: In My Name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover.
14 Those are all keys which have been given to every believer. But there is a special level of authority; there is a special access that God gives to those whom He calls and raises up to the prophetic office.
15 I want to share from the book of Jeremiah 1:10. God says this to Jeremiah, after having called Him:
16 Jeremiah 1:10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. (GMR)
17Maturity Needed for Prophetic Key
18 This is not the type of key that you give to your kids. "Well, John, I've given you the authority to just go and destroy my computer. John, please be my guest. Take this screwdriver, open it up and take it to pieces and play around with it, and ... enjoy!" No, not a chance. He is not old enough and mature enough to do that yet. Now, I look at my older sons like my sons-in-law and they know enough about computers that I can trust them to do that. God does not give this kind of authority to anybody. He only gives this kind of authority to somebody who is capable of handling it. And we are going to take a look at that as we carry on looking at the prophetic key.
19Authority to Restrict Blessing
20 The prophet has the authority to restrict blessing, to shut it out, to stop the blessing of God in the lives of others.
21 1 Kings 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, [who was] from the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, [As] the LORD [Yahweh] God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except according to my word. (GMR)
22 What an arrogant little upstart he was. This little nobody coming out of nowhere goes into the palace of the king, shakes his finger in the face of the king and says, "It is not going to rain until I say so!" I am sure they must have looked at him and said, "Where did you crawl from? How dare you. Do you know who you're talking to? I'm the king!" But I think they knew better because this guy was a prophet, and they came to realize that when a prophet said something, he was not just spouting words. He was speaking something that God had given him. He was using an authority that God had placed in him. He was using a key that he had a right to use.
23 So Elijah took the key and he locked the heavens. He said, "Okay rain you're locked out. You are not coming again until I say so. Not until I unlock you again will you fall." Rain was a blessing. Not only was it a blessing, it was essential. Without water no life can survive. Without rain there cannot be plant growth; there cannot be food; there cannot be anything. Life cannot exist without water, without rain. He shut out the very sources of life.
24 Why did he do it? Well he did not do it just because he felt like it or to show everybody how great he was. Elijah had read in the Scriptures that God had spoken through other prophets and He had declared to the Israelites, "If you will not obey My laws; if you will turn from My Covenant, then I will shut up the heavens and it will not rain. I will withhold My blessing, and I will withhold the rain from you." Elijah saw it and He read it, and I think it burned in him as he read it and the Spirit of God raised up in him. And God said to him, "Okay, Elijah, speak it forth. Elijah, take the key I've given you in accordance with My Word, in accordance with My instruction, and you lock the heavens until My people turn back from their sin and return to their Covenant responsibilities."
25 It is an awesome responsibility. This is the kind of key that can destroy the lives of people. It is not the kind of key that you give to the guy who cannot stand bad drivers. No he will just lock his steering so he can crash. He will just blow him out of the road. Oh, it is an awesome responsibility, an awesome authority that God gives to us as His prophets.
26Authority to Release Ministries
27 The key of the prophet gives the prophet authority to release ministries, to release those whom God has called, that they may go forth into the work.
28 Acts 13:1 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
29 2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
30 3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid [their] hands on them, they sent [them] away. (GMR)
31 There were prophets and there were teachers there, and God wanted to raise up from amongst them, apostles. God moved on His prophets and He spoke to them and said, "Now you take Barnabas and Saul, and you use your key to unlock the door for them to move into the ministry that I have called them to. You lay your hands on them and you speak forth the word of authority, that they may be sent forth to do what I have called them to do."
32 They could not go until that had happened. They could not go forth until they had been released.
33 God gave to the prophets the authority, the key to open the door that would open the way wide for Paul and Barnabas to go forth. And when they opened that door they were free to leave. And it says, they were sent forth then by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works through the prophet. He gives to the prophet the authority. Up until that point they were just prophets and teachers. From now on they were going to become apostles. And so they were released to be sent forth.
34 Although God had called them to be apostles, it took a prophet to release them, to open the door for them to move. And you will see that very often the prophet is given that very authority. I know, speaking from my own experience, that again and again God will reveal this. As we minister to people God will reveal a ministry and He will say, "I have called this person to do that particular work." And He will show us a picture of a door, and He will say, "Open the door for them."
35Opening Doors for Others
36 Now there is only one problem with the prophetic key. The prophetic key is used to open the door for others. I did not understand this when God first showed it to me, when He first began to lead me into this ministry, and I did not even fully understand that I was in the prophetic office yet. It seemed that I always became involved in helping other people to move into their ministry. And they would move in and they would become pastors of churches and start different works, then my time was over and I was just kind of pushed aside. And it seemed I never came in. I tried to move in myself. I tried to start works and become a pastor, but it just did not work.
37 I came to the Lord one day and I said, "Lord, what is going on? I'm helping so many other people to move into ministry, but you are not opening the door for me yet." And the Lord said to me, "I've given you a key to open doors, but when you open doors you will not go through them. Other people will go through them."
38 Prophet of God, you may be sitting in a local church, and God has given you authority, and through intercession you have spoken blessing down on that church; you have spoken blessing down on that pastor and the elders and the leadership of that church. You have spoken blessing down on individuals in that church; you have given them a prophetic word; you have sent them forth, you have launched them; you have identified their ministries, and you see people go off as a result of your ministry. You see them go off and you see them move into their ministry. You see a man of God rising up and becoming a public figure and becoming popular. You see the pastor of the church coming up and everybody is looking to him and in awe of him, and you sit there and say, "But I put him there." That's right. That is what the key is for. That is right. You are meant to open doors for others to go through. That is what the prophetic key is about. And we will look at it more as we go on.
39Speaking Blessings and Curses
40 The prophet, through the key in the prophetic, is given the authority to speak blessings and curses. In Numbers 22:6 we read of a wicked king who saw the children of Israel and became fearful of them because they were going to overrun him and take over his land. He
"The prophet, through the key in the prophetic, is given the authority to speak blessings and curses."
was afraid, and so he called for a prophet, a man by the name of Balaam. He was a recognized prophet of God, a man who displayed clearly the ministry of a prophet. And he said in verse 6:
41 Numbers 22:6 Come now therefore, I request of you, curse these people for me; for they [are] too mighty for me: perhaps I will win, [that] we may strike them, and [that] I may drive them out of the land: for I know that he whom you bless [is] blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed. (GMR)
42 He could see it. It was known. He was not even a famous prophet. (Of course he became infamous because of this particular event). He was not even a famous prophet, but he was a prophet of God. He stood in the office of a prophet and everybody could see and look and say, "This man is a prophet. When he speaks blessing on somebody blessing comes forth. When he speaks a curse that person is cursed."
43 The key of the prophet is the key to open doors and to close doors, to bind and to loose, to permit or to restrict or to bar. He has the right, as Elijah did, to lock up the blessing or to open it again. And later on as the people turned back to God, as
the prophets of Baal were killed, Elijah went and prayed and he used his key and opened up the heavens, and the rain came again.
44Not for Personal Advantage
45 Balaam unfortunately thought he could make some money out of this deal, and I am going to speak more about that shortly concerning the prophetic key. The prophetic key is not for you to use for your advantage. Balaam made a big mistake. He thought he could go and curse the people of God and be paid for it. But God would not let him. He was not allowed to. He had to speak blessing and blessing only.
46 Prophet of God be warned... |
