The Rise of the Prophetic Voice

INTRODUCTION By a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved. Hosea 12:13• Martin Luther King Jr. once said, If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without any moral or spiritual authority. More than ever, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ today needs its prophetic voice restored. The purpose of the church on earth is truly not to be merely a social movement of people who adhere to certain set rules of good behaviour. The church is rather a body of those who are saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and appointed to be His representatives in the world. The mission of the church is to make Christ known, through the demonstration of his power and glory, in preaching and living the Word of God. The church is called upon not only to preach the gospel but also to live that very gospel. To preach the gospel means to proclaim the message of the gospel, the Word of God, and to live the gospel means to experience that message personally. If I proclaim to the world that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever more, I must be able to experience that very truth in my own personal life. If I proclaim that Jesus heals, I must be able to experience His healing power in my life and through my life. If I proclaim that miracles are the bread of and for God’s children, I must also be able to witness those miracles in my life today. I should be able to see them happening throughout my life. It is unfortunate that the church of God is fast losing its spiritual identity and the gospel is losing its position of power in the world. Today, the church is seen as more of a social club of like-minded people, whose gatherings have less and less spiritual impact in the real world. In a greater sense, the church has lost its crucial identity as a spiritual body. In many countries, churches are legally categorised as cultural rather than spiritual entities; in other words, churches are legally registered as cultural organisations. I don’t blame the legislatures for this legal definition; they have categorised the church based on the facts and evidence before them. The church of our Lord Jesus Christ should not be limited to the role of a cultural organisation. A church can function culturally as place of motivation, where we learn decent behaviour. There, we may even discuss Bible stories and practice devotion and meditation for inner peace. Even so, we would miss the real gospel. We need to regain the fire of God in the church. Let us arise to take back our rightful place as a spiritual body of power so that we may establish the kingdom of God in this world. People and nations today need to experience the power of God through the church, and the prophetic voice is the means through which God is restoring to the church the power of the gospel. Without God’s prophetic move, confusion and darkness will continue to hover over the face of the earth. The prophetic is like the ignition, which gets the church moving again. Prophecy will restore the church to its original identity and bring back the fire of God. Deliverance will come to the people of this world. Hosea reports, “By a prophet, the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved” (Hos 12:3). Here, Hosea is saying that the Lord through the prophet has delivered the people during the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. Furthermore, the prophet has preserved Israel. So shall it be in our time. God will bring deliverance through prophecy; God will also preserve His people, the church, through His servants, the prophets. Please note that God does not change and neither have God’s methods. Just as God used the prophet for the deliverance and preservation of Israel, His people, in former times, so will He use His anointed servants, the prophets, to establish His perfect will and to deliver His people, in our times and for our own generation. The Lord has mandated that I write this book to prepare the church and His people to prepare for the return of the prophetic to the church today. I am a prophet of God. This book is written under the prophetic guidance of the Holy Spirit. Enriched by a great wealth of theological knowledge, this book contains a treasure house of fundamental biblical teachings. We are indeed living in different times now as compared to our forefathers. In our times, God will move through prophecy, for the prophetic is an end-of-time ministry. The prophetic is the last weapon of the Lord to bring and to demonstrate His power in this world. The prophetic is the Lord’s last card. There is a strong prophetic wind of the Holy Spirit blowing in the world today; unless the church is informed and prepared, we will miss the doings of the Lord completely. I write this book in full submission to the Spirit of God and with the sole purpose of making a significant contribution to what the Lord Himself is already doing in the church. This book will present you with the fundamental biblical truths about the prophetic; it will enlighten your mind through insight. You will gain the ability to respond to and be embraced by God’s prophetic move. I saw in a vision that millions of people around the world were arising with a strong prophetic mantle upn them. I saw infants prophesying. I saw a boy and girl, mere children, a multicultural army of young people, both ordinary believers and ministers alike—all were arising strong in the prophetic spirit. The world is already vibrating with the arising of God’s prophetic move. The spirit of prophecy will grow and spread like wildfire – it will not stop. From the South to the North and the East to the West, every part of the globe will experience the arising of prophets, sprouting like mushrooms. Prophets will speak to this world on behalf of the Lord. This book is a strategic tool of the Holy Spirit to awaken, to educate, to equip, and to prepare the church of God for the arising of the prophetic. I pray that the prophetic flames of fire may be ignited in you as you read. Therefore, keep an open mind as you read, and allow the Spirit of God directly to minister to you. Schools of Theology We are caught between many schools of theology in the church. Excessive debates have sown confusion in the Body of Christ, clouding our understanding of the mind of God in the Scriptures. As a result, there are many divisions among us. We use the same Bible and we read the same biblical verses. But we differ tremendously in our interpretations. A state of darkness is occurring because the light of the prophetic has been extinguished among many in the Body of Christ. We try to understand and to interpret the Word of God through the strength of our intellect rather than by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Today, amongst the different schools of theology, we have three groups with different lines of thoughts and beliefs: 1. The prophetic, along with the gifts of the Holy Spirit (and certain biblical ministries), no longer exist in our time. 2. The prophetic, along with all the biblical gifts and ministries, were given to the church. So long as the church exists on earth, the prophetic will remain in operation and the gifts of the Holy Spirit will continue to belong to us. 3. The prophetic ministry, and the gifts of the Spirit, are all i