|
|
| "Many of the prophets of today do not use all the prophetic terms in this dictionary to explain their ministry and how they function. Therefore, The Prophet's Dictionary provides a vital tool for the Body of Christ. The hope is that it will bring greater understanding, wisdom, balance, and unity among all who are prophets and all those who desire to derive the blessings of God's present-day prophets and prophetic ministry." |
| |
|
TEACHING
The Prophet's Dictionary
By Dr. Paula Price
Guest Writer
CBN.com -- Why write a dictionary? More incredibly, why a Prophet’s Dictionary?
Regularly, I am asked these two questions and my answer is the same. I never set out to write a dictionary. It started as a glossary of terms to define for my new prophets and prophesiers the Lord's prophetics that just kept growing. The more I learned the larger it grew.
For decades, interest in the supernatural, spirituality and paranormal has risen. People’s curiosity about the future mushrooms as psychics, clairvoyants, and spiritual readers of all kinds flood neighborhoods and airways to predict the future -- and Scripture says it will only increase. Unfortunately, the Lord’s church has not kept the same spiritual pace, although it traditionally claims spirituality as its domain.
Add to this the rampant pagan agenda of idolatry, and demonism and you see the value of a resource like The Prophets Dictionary.
It aims to foster a credible prophetic culture and consciousness by standardizing its principal terms and phrases. Numerous Scriptures endorse prophetic continuity and reuse terms and phrases that define and reconnect modern prophets to their biblical roots.
Thousands are awakening to new prophetic powers and abilities as God continues to pour out His Spirit on all flesh. Prophets, prophesiers, psalmists, seers, and highly gifted intercessors are born in pews worldwide, courageously declaring His word for this era to answer Amos 3:7-9 (see below).
God is speaking and His people are prophesying it.
My entry into the prophetic was much like this. In the beginning God just started speaking -- and as I heard I prophesied. While learning His word, I was especially struck by His prophets’ writings. Their prophecies and revelations seared my heart. At first I dismissed them as just long ago recollections of when God spoke to and through people and was heard. Eventually, He showed me how He never changes. Like then, He now has people specially made to hear His voice and repeat it to those to whom they are sent.
I wondered next how the old prophets knew God well enough to speak so boldly and definitively for Him. I resolved to learn all I could about the prophetic and searched for good material on it. Much of what I found was on prophecy. Other books gave testimonials from prophets who defied the odds and made it on their own; barely saying how or why.
Most books concentrated on end time prophecy, but nothing gave me what I needed to understand as a prophetic minister. I craved a resource that told me how to be a prophet (rather than just how to prophesy). I looked for answers to why God called and trusted prophets, and questioned what it took to use what I received from Him skillfully and accurately.
Realizing what I experienced was not rare, I studied the prophetic on my own accepting that what I sought was unavailable then. Several things surfaced for me as I did. For one, there seemed to be no common thread tying the major actions of the prophetic together for anyone to learn as a potential prophetic voice.
Second, much of the existing material on the prophet lacked one important feature to establish its credibility in modern times; continuity. Basically limited to prophesying and prophecy, most overlooked the prophet as a minister. Besides this, one writer’s view often cancelled out another to add to my confusion.
I asked, 'What caused God to speak or intervene in human affairs and why did He do so through His prophets?' A single text that named and described the prophetic’s key actions and expressions that precisely separated the mantle from its ministry, the office from its giftings, and executions from expression was needed.
All this inspired me to study each prophet and prophetic episode recorded in Scripture to figure out what was relevant, appropriate, and practicable. I thought the prophetic would be more trusted and effective if it uniformly explained its routine duties and actions. Then the ministries of the prophet and prophecy would seem less devoid of order and more rational.
In looking for commonality, consistency, application, and what linked them to the issues and conditions the Lord sent His prophets to address for Him, I happened upon Hosea 12:10 and 13 (see below) and Numbers 12:6 KJV (see below). Together both passages show the value of the prophet’s ministry to the Lord. Hosea says, 'He delivers and preserves His people by the prophets,' while Numbers adds 'He taps prophets early in life through visions and dreams.'
Prophets serve a greater purpose for God than mere prediction. Yes, He speaks by prophets, but He sends visions and dreams to depict His will, and shares His mind with them using similitudes as well. Prophets interpret mysterious dreams, decipher enigmas, and translate God’s invisible world to ours. By His Holy Spirit, they handle every eternal, invisible, and heavenly detail the Lord experiences with humanity on earth -- because God does everything in word first.
He uses prophecy to distinguish His holy and righteous spirituality from the deceptive powers of darkness.
Prophetics minimizes deception by exposing the false from the true, and revealing the Almighty’s mind and will to His creation. Well defined prophetics curtail unenlightened prophesying that borders on fortunetelling to better preserve God's flock, and bring His eternal word to pass in every generation. Official prophets detect and explain the exercise of the gift of prophecy from execution of the prophet’s office.
These all motivated me to define the ministry.
The supernatural begs to be exercised, and although the Lord delegated this task to His church, recent spiritual fetishes by the children of darkness have flung wide its gates to whosoever will. People today hunger for God's mind and relish spirituality. They want to understand their dreams, visions, and the hosts of supernatural beings that serve, impersonate, or pervert our Lord. This generation yearns to know its purpose and clarify its destiny. In their quest for future information, many of them are deceived because they think everything spiritual is from Creator God. The Prophet’s Dictionary counteracts this flawed belief.
The Church’s response to the world’s spiritual appetite must blend godly supernaturals with its other doctrines to defend its faith and secure God’s truth. Believers should understand more than the Holy Spirit’s gifts and manifestations. They should know equally well His administrations and operations. Christians need this wisdom during and between church services. As a guide to the Creator’s supernatural wisdom, The Prophet’s Dictionary intelligently explains spirituality, the supernatural, and God’s diverse prophetic tasks to equip all ministers and believers to cooperate with God's Holy Spirit in this world.
By no means complete today, it is a tool that fills a need few of us realized was so great.
Scripture references:
Amos 3:7-9 (NLT) -- 7 Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything
until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared—so who isn’t frightened?
The Sovereign Lord has spoken—so who can refuse to proclaim his message?
9 Announce this to the leaders of Philistia and to the great ones of Egypt:
“Take your seats now on the hills around Samaria, and witness the chaos and oppression in Israel.”
Hosea 12:10 and 13 (KJV) -- 10 I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.
13 And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.
Numbers 12:6 (KJV) -- 6 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
Order your copy of The Prophet's Dictionary
More from Dr. Paula Price
More from Whitaker House Publishers
More
about the Holy Spirit on Spiritual Life
More CBN Teaching Sheets
 Paula A. Price is widely recognized as a modern-day apostle with a potent prophetic anointing. Having been in active full-time ministry since 1985, she has founded and established three churches, an apostolic and prophetic Bible institute, a publication company, a consulting firm, and a global collaborative network linking apostles and prophets together for the purpose of kingdom vision and ventures.
© 2006 Paula A. Price. Used with permission.
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
|