What Are 'Conditional Prophetic Words'?

Now I can hear some of you asking what on earth is a ‘Conditional Prophetic Word’? I thought when something was Prophesied it was an automatic thing you may be thinking. Well since we compare all ‘Prophetic Word’ to the Scriptures; let us see if that thought process holds water. We will look at two very familiar passages of Scripture.

“If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land.” Isaiah 1:19 NKJV (Emphasis Mine)

In this verse of Scripture we find a promise that states that you will eat the good of the land. However, we also find two conditions which must be met before we can expect to walk in the promise of eating the good of the land. The two conditions that must be met are that we be willing and obedient. Well, what happens if we are not willing and obedient? Then we have no right to the promise of eating the good of the land, nor will we.

Notice it is not enough to be willing or obedient; we must be willing and obedient. It is very much like the story of the parent who tells their six year old son to go to bed. The child replies: “I don’t want to go to bed.” To which the parent replies: “I said go to bed!” To which the child replies: “I don’t want to go to bed.” Now the parent a little angry proceeds towards the child raising their hand and their voice speaking through clenched teeth saying: “I SAID GO TO BED!” At this point the child knows a beating is about to come so reluctantly the child goes to bed so as to avoid the wrath of their parent. Now here are the questions for this scenario: Was the child obedient? The answer would be yes. Was the child willing? The answer would be no.

This is very much the way it is with us and God. In order to walk in this promise of eating the good of the land reluctant obedience will not get the job done. It will require both a willing heart and the obedience. Now let us look at another familiar Scripture:

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” James 4:7 & 8a NKJV (Emphasis Mine)

In this verse and a half of Scripture we find two promises: 1. The devil will flee from us. 2. God will draw near to us. These are marvelous promises that God has given us. Let us consider the first promise first, the promise that the devil will flee from us. My question to you is this: Will the devil just flee from us without anything being done on our part?

The obvious answer as we look at this Scripture is no. The sad part is most times when folks quote this verse, they don’t quote it correctly, so folks don’t believe it correctly, and therefore they do not walk in the promise and usually are left wondering why it is not working. Do you realize to misquote Scripture is not God’s fault when it does not work? Tell me how many times have you heard this verse quoted like this: “Just resist the devil and he will flee from you?” Come on now be honest…how many times? I dare say most of the time when you hear it quoted…that is the way it is quoted.

Do you realize that is NOT what the verse says? What happened to the first condition that is mentioned? What happened to the: “Therefore submit to God?” Folks if you haven’t submitted first to God and to God ordained authority, you can forget about resisting the devil, he is going to flatten you like a steamroller paving fresh black top. You may say why Mike? Because you haven’t met the condition of submitting to God first. You first submit to God and God ordained authority, then you resist the devil, then he will flee from you.

The second promise we see in this text is that God will draw near to us. Again, I ask: “Will God just draw near to us without any action on our part?” Again, the obvious answer is no. The verse says to draw near to God, then God will draw near to us. What happens if we don’t draw near to God? Then God will not draw near to us. Can you see how these promises that are in these verses are conditional predicated on the fact that we do something then God will do something? Have you ever noticed how often in Scripture it seems that God speaks in this manner: “If you will do this than I will do this?” “If you do this than this will happen?” If God speaks that way in His written word, doesn’t it stand to reason that He would speak that way in the ‘Prophetic Word’?

So many times if you examine the wording of the ‘Prophetic Word’ you will notice similar speech patterns. I remember once I gave someone a ‘Prophetic Word’ that stated: “As you continue in this path…than XYZ.” Now what happens if that person does not continue in that path? What happens if the veer off course? Then XYZ is not going to happen. But you may be thinking the ‘Prophetic Word’ said XYZ was going to happen. Well that is a half-truth, and a half-truth is a lie. What the ‘Prophetic Word’ said was: “as you continue in this path…”

Now this individual could have not stayed the course, changed direction and robbed themselves of what God was promising them. The choice was theirs to obey the instruction in the ‘Prophetic Word’ in order to walk in the promise of the ‘Prophetic Word’. If they didn’t obey the instruction and not inherit the promise was that my fault as the Prophet who gave the ‘Prophetic Word’? No more than it is God’s fault when we don’t submit to Him so we can resist the devil so that he would flee from us. Can you see how the ‘Prophetic Word’ works just like the Written Word?

So when we examine does the ‘Prophetic Word’ come to pass we must ask ourselves: “Was it a ‘Conditional Prophetic Word’”? So often we don’t understand the language of the Prophetic! The language of the Prophetic, even though it comes out with the speech patterns and personality of the vessel that is delivering it, is just like Scripture in that each of the writer’s had their own personality and speech patterns come out in their writings too, just look at Peter and Paul, their writing styles were certainly different, just as individuals who Prophesy will have different styles, yet the element will remain the same many times you will still hear if you will ABC than I will XYZ, when you do that is a ‘Conditional Prophetic Word’ not an ‘Absolute Prophetic Word’.