Lord I’m Amazed By You!

I was drawn to this text of Scripture this morning at church during worship singing this popular modern worship song:

 

“Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. ⁷ No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. ⁸ But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. ⁹ That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,

 

‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
    and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
    for those who love him.’

 

¹⁰ But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. ¹¹ No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. ¹² And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.” 1 Corinthians 2: 6-12 New Living Translation (Emphasis Mine)

 

As I mediated on this text briefly certain things stood out to me.

 

·         Mature Believers – we should just pause right there and say Selah…everything else that follows is for Mature Believers. The reason that many don’t walk in or see things, is because they are not Mature Believers…they are immature believers who still need the milk of the Word and can’t handle strong meat.

·         Our wisdom as mature Believers is to understand and know the mysteries of God.

·         No eye has seen it, no ear has heard it, no mind has imagined it, but God has already prepared it for Mature Believers to not just walk in, but to come into understanding of.

·         His Spirit shows us God’s deep secrets. God has secrets that were not kept from us…they were kept for us! By His Spirit we can know the wonderful things He has freely given us. Jesus said when the Spirit of Truth is come He would lead us and guide us into all truth and that He would take of mine (Jesus’) and would disclose (reveal) it unto us.

Submission Authority & Protocol

Submission and authority is something that most folks in the church don’t have a working understanding of. The principle is this: “If you are not under authority, you can’t exercise authority.” This is an important Kingdom principle and it holds in many areas of Kingdom life. The Roman Centurion who came to Jesus on behalf of his sick servant is a great example of this.

 

“But the officer said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, Go, and they go, or Come, and they come. And if I say to my slaves, Do this, they do it.’” Matthew 8:8 & 9 NLT (Emphasis Mine)

 

Notice the Centurion said that he was under the authority of his superior officers, and that he had authority of his soldiers. Because he was under authority, he could then exercise authority. We can only exercise authority to the degree that we are under authority!

 

It is so vital that we learn this. We can’t afford anymore renegades or Lone Rangers running around the church who are not submitted to or accountable to anybody, and then expect that they should just be able to prophesy and speak into people’s lives. No Way! If you are not under authority, you can’t exercise authority! You are operating outside of Biblical protocol.

 

Right along this line we need to understand delegated authority too. Let’s say that the local ‘Set Man’ in the local church has turned the service over to the worship leader. Now the ‘Set Man’ is THE authority in the local church, but at that moment, he has delegated authority to the worship leader, so at that moment as long as the worship leader is operating under the delegated authority of the ‘Set Man’ everyone should be submitted to the worship leader as long as they are operating in that capacity. If you have something at that time you should be going to the worship leader because they are the delegated authority at that moment.

 

Many in this case would still go to the ‘Set Man’ because he is the supreme authority as the under shepherd in the house. But you see this is a lack of understanding of delegated authority. Even though the ‘Set Man’ (or woman, there can be ladies that are heads of ministries too), because they have delegated that authority, they are not in charge until such a time as they take it back. Folks this is part of protocol.

 

Let me take this in another direction while I am at it. I am a member of a local church called Community Church Fixer of Hearts in North Brunswick, NJ. My good friend and my Brother (not just in the Lord, but we are like real Brothers) Rev. Barry Habib is the Pastor of the church; he is the ‘Set Man’. I serve in the church as a teaching elder and am considered to be a Prophet and am accepted as a Prophet not just by Pastor Barry, but by the rest of the leadership and the congregation as well.

 

That being said, I am under Pastor Barry’s authority in that house because he is the ‘Set Man’. There are times that he has me speak or minister in the house. At those times he delegates authority to me. When I am operating under his delegated authority, folks then look to me if something is right or in order. But once I turn things back over to Pastor Barry, they don’t look to me anymore because I am not operating under delegated authority anymore.

 

Now let’s bring another scenario into this. I also operate in a parachurch ministry with my parents, Apostles Leo & Edith Fram, called Living Faith Ministries Int’l (LFMI for short). Some times LFMI holds meetings that Pastor Barry attends. Sometimes we even use the facility of the Community Church Fixer of Hearts building. When Pastor Barry comes to a meeting that we are holding, even if it is in his house, because it is our meeting, he comes in submitted to our authority. There are times that he gets ‘Words’ in our meetings, when that happens we delegate authority to him and he operates under delegated authority in our meeting (the same as we operate under his delegated authority in the local church).

 

So in the sense that we are equals and peers in the ministry with him functioning as a local Pastor, and I am operating as a Prophet, we have learned how to yield to delegated authority, and be in submission to each other’s authority depending on whose meeting it is. Folks this is a big part of protocol. If we will learn these things and practice them, we will see a much greater manifestation of not just the Gifts of the Spirit, but also of Kingdom Alignment.

Why Sometimes Our Prophetic Words Don’t Come To Pass

One of the things to consider in does the ‘Prophetic Word’ come to pass is; what are you doing with it? This might seem like a strange question to some, but let me explain. So many times we receive a ‘Prophetic Word’ and then just sit back and wait for it to manifest, but don’t do anything with it. This is clearly against the admonition of the Apostle Paul to his son in the faith, the Apostle in training, Timothy.

“This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.” 1 Timothy 1:18 NKJV (Emphasis Mine)

I want you to notice what Paul said to Timothy. He was referring to ‘Prophesies’ that Timothy had already (past tense) received; and that by those ‘Prophesies’ he could wage a good warfare. Did you ever think that you could war with your ‘Prophetic Words’? This is what Paul admonished Timothy to do.

I explain it to folks this way. Back in the hay day of the “Word of Faith” movement there was a big push to confess the promises of the Word of God. We were taught to: “Pray the Promise not the Problem!” If you were sick, you would find as many Scriptures as you could on physical healing in the Bible and then pray those Scriptures over your life. What were we doing? We were waging warfare with the written Word of God.

The truth is we can and should do exactly the same thing with our ‘Prophetic Words’. Paul told Timothy to wage a good warfare with them. How do we do that? First, we have to record them some way or other. Whether it is by some sort of sound recording, short hand, long hand, whatever…but we need to have a record of them so we can refer to them and wage warfare with them. I suggest that every church and ministry get in the habit of recording ‘Prophetic Words’. Once it is recorded it can always be transcribed, which we also do quite regularly.

You may ask why should we record and transcribe ‘Prophetic Words’? There are two reasons: 1. So that they can be judged accurately. 2. So you will have a clear record of what was said to use in your warfare. Once you have accurate record of your ‘Prophetic Word (s)’ and they have been judged as being accurate, you are ready to proceed to the warfare stage.

Exactly what we used to do with the written Word of God in the “Word of Faith” days is what we do with our ‘Prophetic Words’. We remind God, the devil and ourselves of what God has said! The same as you would pray according to Matthew 8:17; “Father your word says the He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses, so if He took them I don’t have to have them!” Well, you do the same thing with your ‘Prophetic Word’. You say; “Father your ‘Prophetic Word’ to me declared… (Whatever it was)…and based on your ‘Prophetic Word’ to me I thank you that I walk in it and it shall be fulfilled in my life!

We have to come to the place that we realize that there is just as much creative power in the ‘Legitimate Prophetic Word’ (one that has been judged and passes the criteria) as there was in the word released in Genesis chapter one where it records over and over again through the story of creation: “And God said!” Every time God said, whatever He said came to pass. And God said let there be light…and light was! There is creative power released in the word of God.

The book of Hebrews puts it this way:

“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Hebrews 11:3 NKJV (Emphasis Mine)

Folks the worlds themselves were framed by the Word of God. Whatever God said is what came to be. When God speaks over your life about your purpose and destiny He is literally framing your future and He is waiting for you to come into agreement with Him and declare out of your mouth back to Him that which He has already declared. This is warring with your ‘Prophetic Word’.

Don’t you remember this verse?

“Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted.” Isaiah 43:26 NKJV (Emphasis Mine)

God is telling us to remind Him of what He said. Not because He has a bad memory and does not remember, but because He wants us to come into covenant agreement with Him over what He has declared to be. He said for us to contend together, the New American Standard Bible words it this way: “Put Me in remembrance, let us argue our case together; State your cause, that you may be proved right.” Did you see that? He said for us to argue our case together. God wants us to say Father you said! It is time we learn to do that with our ‘Prophetic Words’.

Second you are also reminding yourself of what God promised you when you rehearse your ‘Prophetic Words’. It is easy to forget what God has spoken to you. As you rehearse them your faith gets built up and you get encouraged. Remember:

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17 NKJV

Faith comes by hearing God’s word, which can be the ‘Prophetic Word’ just as much as it can be the written word. As you are declaring the ‘Prophetic Word’ your faith is growing over what God has promised you enabling you to believe what God has said.

Third you are reminding the devil of what God has said. The enemy of your soul doesn’t want you believing in your ‘Prophetic Word’. He tries to discourage you from walking in it by telling you it will never come to pass or that God will do it for somebody else but He will never do it for you. When you declare your ‘Prophetic Word’ in essence you are saying back off Mr. Devil, this is where I am going and this what God and I are doing!

You can’t be passive with your ‘Prophetic Words’. You must be militant with them. You can’t just sit back doing nothing just-a-hoping-and-a-waiting for them to manifest. No! You must war with them! Remember Jesus declared:

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” Matthew 11:12 NKJV (Emphasis Mine)

So before you run off and say my ‘Prophetic Word’ did not come to pass, ask yourself, what have I done with it? It is time you stopped being laid back with your ‘Prophetic Words’ and started to be aggressive, yes and even violent with them and wage a good warfare with them so that they begin to come to pass.