On Getting A Prophetic Word

Occasionally I like to share some emails we’ve received along with my answers. These two emails came from folks who really want more from God in their lives and are looking to Him to fulfill a prophetic word to them. One wants to receive a word and the other has received a word and is waiting for the fulfillment of it. Is there’s a better way for them both? Can you relate to either of these?

Q. Hi, How does one go about getting a prophetic word from your ministry, concerning deep decisions, confusion and destinies?   

A. If you’re asking about getting a personal word related to your particular issues, that’s not what Messianic Vision is about. There are ministries “out there” that do that, but it’s not us. I would encourage you to not miss this wonderful opportunity to find God in a greater way than you’ve known Him so far by hearing what He would speak to you personally in the midst of your circumstances. My suggestion is to get into your Bible and put your questions and issues before the Lord and stay there in your times with Him until He gives you answers. Be willing to hear from Him however and whatever He speaks to you. You may well be very pleasantly surprised at how a word directly from God will flood your heart with peace and joy, much more than if you got a word from someone else. Or it may just bring quietness to a storm you’re presently in. Nothing satisfies like God speaking to your heart.

If you get a word from someone else, you can’t really know if it’s what God is saying to you or not, unless He’s already spoken to you about it and they are confirming it to you. We can rely on someone else giving us input that is supposedly from God, but what if it’s not from Him? A prophetic word should always CONFIRM what we already feel in our hearts God is saying to us or has shown us in His Word. If someone gives you a prophetic word that’s entirely new to you, you have to (or you better) go back to God for His confirmation. NEVER structure your life on a word someone gives you that God wasn’t already working in your heart (and sometimes your circumstances) unless you really 1) get it confirmed by Him and 2) in His word, and 3) you have the peace of God in your heart about it. That would be a three-fold confirmation. Yeshua warned us to test the spirits to be sure they are from Him – because they aren’t always! Gaining His wisdom, I have found, always begins with humility before Him. Praising Him and speaking or singing to Him in appreciation of the goodness He has already shown you and focusing on who He is to you will stir up your faith while you’re waiting for Him to speak to you.

I remember being taught, “No dates, mates or debates” in prophecy. Many a person’s faith has been shaken, or even shipwrecked because a word was given with a specific time attached that didn’t materialize when it was expected to. Or a prospective mate didn’t show up as hoped for. Or the word enabled you to interpret it as validating your side of a divisive matter instead of resolving it. A Word from the Lord about a conflict with someone else should be of this spirit: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). Furthermore, it is not the prophet’s job to interpret what he hears from God, only to give the word. But we also must be careful that our own interpretation is godly and righteous and doesn’t feed our carnal fleshly desires or justify a wounded soul.

Please know that I fully understand wanting a word from someone to speak into your circumstances. Been there, done that. We’d all love to have that shortcut “concerning deep decisions, confusion and destinies” such as our emailing friend. But I can also tell you from thirty-five years of walking with the Lord, He wants to meet your need. He wants to bring you closer to Himself to speak wisdom and resolution to you oh so personally. So I have a three-part question this time for you:

1. Do you want a word that is information on what you should do in your situation(s), or do you want to grow closer to the Lord?
2. Do you want to clear up some issues in your life or do you want to learn how to trust in God so situations don’t repeatedly overwhelm you but rather, you know how to go to Him for what you need before they become crises?
3. Do you want to “fix it” or do you want Him?

It’s been my experience that I can get a situation fixed, but if I haven’t gained more of God in it and gotten closer to Him, I’m probably going to have to go through something down the road and face the same challenge another time. When faced with trials in our lives we have two options: Fix it ourselves or find Him in it!

So in answer to wanting a prophetic word, I would say the loving commandment before you is, “Come to Me, you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). If you really want a significant prophetic word or a word of knowledge you can be sure is from God, this is the word you’re looking for: Thus saith the Lord to you, Come to ME! He is the Ultimate Prophet. A word from Him will satisfy your soul, it will give you clarity like no other word from another person, and it will have an assurance to it that only He can give.

He loves you. He’s waiting for you to come to Him. It may take some time, but stay in your Bible and keep your heart open and humble before Him and He’ll speak to you. Don’t panic, Don’t be in a rush, even if circumstances seem to demand that you hurry. In Hebrew, the same word for “disturbed” also means “in a hurry.” Be at peace. Your times are in His hand. He will see you through. Stay locked in on Him, and keep knocking and keep asking IN FAITH, believing that He loves you and wants to answer you. You have a life changing opportunity to become a man of God who hears from Him and knows what to do in times of difficulty. This can change your life for good.

May He anoint you (and all of you who are reading this) to have ears to hear what He is saying to you, to have a heart to wait upon Him and to be empowered to follow through on what He will reveal to you. When you have learned that you can hear Him when He speaks to you, you’re able to hear other revelations from Him that will bring you wisdom and discernment and insight into His Word that will equip you for the rest of your life so much more than a word from someone else would ever provide for you. Then you can teach others how to wait on God.

P.S. After I answered this man’s question, I received this gracious email reply back: “Thanks for the word of encouragement. I will apply the principles and await the results. Bless you and your ministries, and may the Lord continue to use Messianic Vision to minister to people like me, who are in need of drawing closer to God. Amen.”

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While most of the emails I receive are questions about “one new man” or a Jewish roots issue someone wants clarification on, or they are adding something interesting to what was said in an article, on rare occasion I get a “Dear Abby” kind of email. This next one was from someone who had received a prophecy that she was counting on which has not come to pass as she had hoped and it greatly discouraged her. This too is about looking to a prophecy but from a different angle.

Q. I am 35 years of old. I am not married and it worries me. This year a man of God prophesied that my marriage would take place. But I don’t see any fulfillment of this at all. I feel lonely and sad. I’ve been praying but I feel down and have no hope….

A. I’m always somewhat wary over prophetic messages about marriages or relationships. Words like you have received can set someone up for disappointment or worse, for moving forward into a relationship that God isn’t putting together, should someone suddenly seem to be a potential candidate. Those kinds of words can make it sound like a mate will arrive and Poof – there you are in love and headed down the aisle. There’s so much involved in the development of a relationship and it must unfold as people get to know each other over time. Receiving a word like that can cause our expectations to become unrealistic (think day dreamy), which sets us up for discouragement. I don’t mean to add to your discouragement, but God isn’t a fortune teller and I’ve seen many a disappointed person who got a word about a mate being on the way that never materialized. Just because someone gives us a word of prophecy doesn’t mean the word came from God. There’s a reason why God tells us to judge every prophecy to see if it’s from Him.

Before I go any further I want to say that someone does not have to feel or be lonely to benefit from what I’m about to say. There are two issues at hand as I see it. The first has to do with leaning on a prophetic word and expecting it to come to pass. I believe the first email above addresses the risk in that. The second and probably the more important issue is why you may be so lonely and what to do about it. I do understand what it feels like to be lonely. It’s not fun. I remember feeling the sting of loneliness during a period of my life. It was painful. I went to the Lord and asked Him to show me how He suffered what I was suffering because the Word tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). It didn’t feel like I was being tempted except that my loneliness caused me to feel sorry for myself which isn’t exactly faith, is it? I was tempted, in that regard, to think God couldn’t comfort me or know what I was feeling. I really needed Him to “sympathize” with what I was feeling. I had to learn to let Yeshua fill my loneliness. I had to decide to put away my self pity (that’s what it was) and focus on Yeshua’s life and experiences instead of my own. It was that or stay lonely. I came to understand that He wanted to fill my loneliness with Himself.

I began to see that even though He was surrounded by many people, not one of them understood Who He was, or what His own needs were. They just wanted from Him. That can be lonelier in some ways than being by ones self. Not one person ever thought about meeting His needs. I have wondered, though, if when “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), there wasn’t something in the interaction with Mary that triggered this rare expression of deep emotion in Him. Most of our translations say, “She saw Him,” but one translation (I think it’s J.B. Phillips) says, “Looking into His face, she fell at His feet” (John 11:32). Did she really see Him, see into Him, to know of the stress He was under as He approached the day of His torturous death. She knew Him well from having sat at His feet and listened to Him teaching hours on end. He spent much time in their home. Did she see something in His eyes that told her this was hard for Him? Did this one person, just this one, finally show some empathy for Him and though she was deeply troubled about her brother dying, did she fall at His feet – an act of such love and humility – and perhaps for Him a reminder that He is Lord to whom angels bowed, that He began to cry. That does something to me, thinking of Him crying. Who knows what went on inside of Him but it is to Mary first that He appears to react. It goes on to say, “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled” (John 11:32, 33). Many sermons have been preached on why “Jesus wept.”  I’m just offering you my own thoughts gained while wanting to “know… the fellowshipping of His sufferings” (See Phil. 3:10).

Apart from this incident, I saw in the Gospels His probable need for companionship, for human comfort, or how about of just being understood? The guys never did fully get who He was and why He was here until after the resurrection, though who could blame them for that? Who could possibly have imagined that He was God?! He may have desired the love and companionship of a wife and even to be a father. He did love little kids. But God hadn’t called him to marriage and He had to learn to be satisfied with the love of His Father. What about the paramount loneliness of being in Gethsemane when He was so very alone in His anguish? Can’t you almost hear the desperation in His voice when He came back to His only friends, sweat like blood still on His forehead, after “He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death” (Hebrews 5:7) when He “found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?’” (Matthew 26:40). It was a question that had no satisfactory answer.

As I meditated on His loneliness, it became a source of fellowship between me and the Lord and my own loneliness kind of disappeared as I kept my eyes and thoughts on Him.

He will fill your heart and mind too so there’s no room for sadness and disappointment. Or loneliness. You can be alone and not lonely. I can attest to that. But you must be careful what you put in front of your eyes. DO NOT watch TV shows or movies, or read books with romantic stories which takes a decision ahead of time because they’re everywhere. Don’t entertain yourself by watching other people have relationships that you don’t presently have. It will only make you feel worse. The Lord showed me years ago that if I will be careful what I put before my eyes, He would keep me. He kept His part of the bargain as long as I kept mine. We need the Holy Spirit’s help to make godly choices like this because even commercials are designed to trigger feelings of longing so you’ll buy their products, hoping for happiness and meaning in the stuff we buy. (That’s why they play the music they do in supermarkets. Take a notice next time you shop.) There’s much to be focused on that is God-worthy and much that isn’t. Lonely or not, God’s people need to be discerning and decidedly without compromise and refuse to watch what is not pleasing to God nor uplifting and nor strengthening to our spirits. Even Job had the same problem. He made a definite choice and declared, “I have made a covenant with my eyes” (Job 31:1). And so must we.

When faced with loneliness, rather than focusing on wishful thinking and trying to imagine what is not reality in your life at present, ask the Holy Spirit to help you take your focus off of what you don’t presently have and to put it on what you do have in Jesus. Ask Him to change you to be an overcomer, a have and not a have-not person. You HAVE the most precious One in the universe with you – Yeshua! Stay in praise to Him for the good things and the good people He will bring into your life. Stay in praise and refuse despair and He will open your heart to more of Himself and for good things in joy. And who knows, perhaps a mate.

After all, if you were to find a mate, you want to be the best you that you can be so the best person will be drawn to you, right? The reality is that we will draw someone to ourselves who is at the same spiritual level we are. We are generally attracted to, or rather, will maintain a relationship with someone whose relationship with the Lord is pretty much a match for our own. So if we want someone who is fulfilled in the Lord, then we must ask the Lord to teach us to be fulfilled in Him also. Or we’ll meet someone who is also lonely and then we are looking to each other to fill up in our lives what only God can fill. And that can only lead to frustration because we’re demanding what no person can give us any more than we can give it to someone else. Only Yeshua can fill our innermost being.

Happy, fulfilled, well adjusted people want people like that in their lives. So don’t look to another person to fill the holes in your heart that only God can. Let the Lord fill them and you become someone who is so fulfilled in Him, by His grace, that if and when God brings someone into your life, it will not be because you need someone to fulfill you, because you will already be fulfilled. And as you and the other person are whole in yourselves in Him, you can enjoy each other and will be able to accept each other in freedom as God has made you both to be, without being needy.

Then again, there is the chance that this marriage you so want is not meant to be for you. It could be that the Lord is saving you from a greater disappointment than not being married. Only He knows what’s best. I do know that this is not yet good news to some of you. I remember feeling that way. But when you come to the place of knowing Yeshua like this, it won’t matter to you as it does now. You will be satisfied in Him. I know that is hard to imagine if you’ve had your heart preoccupied with thinking you’d be happy if you had someone in your life, but please trust me in this. You were created to find your happiness in Yeshua. Then should a mate come to you, your happiness will be shared with him or her. But should a mate not come to you, your life can be just as fulfilled and satisfying because Yeshua is your satisfaction and your life. I can also assure you, He is enough!!

So make this season in your life one of sweet times of fellowship with Yeshua, allowing Him to draw you closer to Himself, letting Him share His own experiences with you as you ponder the Scriptures (keep a notebook of what He shows you so you don’t loose the thoughts). And allow Him to make you whole. He wants you to be filled with His joy and wisdom and strength of character – and as you continue to come to Him, forsaking the sadness and yielding it up to Him, He will do it. Then, if He sends a mate into your life, He will have prepared you for a spouse of equal character and spiritual maturity. And if He doesn’t, you won’t mind because you’ll be so filled with the Lord, it won’t matter so much anymore. Yeshua, I can tell you, is more than adequate a Husband to the husbandless.

Reprint of this article is permitted as long as you use the following; Use by permission by Messianic Vision, www.sidroth.org, 2016. 

Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible Copyright ©1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.  All rights reserved. Used by permission.