Prophecy

I spent last week at Bethany Village. I am so thankful that I decided to go. There was an annual pastor’s conference going on and I got to be a part of it. There was a group from Montana and a group from San Francisco there [and tons of Ugandans]. There were 3 different pastors who spoke. One of their big subjects to talk about was prophecy. I have never had much experience with prophecy and it was really good for me to learn more about it.
I learned that prophecy can be defined as a declaration of a message from God known by supernatural means. A living God communicating with his children.
The purpose of prophecy is: edification, encouragement, comfort, confirmation, direction and guidance [Acts 13], and impartation [1 Timothy 4:4]. It should ONLY be what is useful for building others up. It should never be used to point out sin or publicly shame someone.
Personal prophecy is partial in nature. We don’t receive the whole picture. It often unfolds over time. God’s time. We should not take what we hear and run with it or take shortcuts to get where we think we are headed.
There are pages upon pages in my journal about all of this with more scripture… so if anyone is interested/has any questions I can try to help/explain.
By the end of the week I felt comfortable enough to receive personal prophecy. Pastor Bryan [Montana] Jez [A man from wales who lives in Uganda with his family] and Pastor Dale [a Ugandan] prophesied over me. It was really cool. Definitely edifying… encouraging… confirming… directing… imparting. There was nothing weird about it. Nothing scary. [And I have to admit I have always been skeptical and a bit weirded out by it.] It would not have made anyone feel uncomfortable. After experiencing it, I think it should be a more normal thing in the church.
I don’t really want to go into too much detail about it because it was so special to me. If I try to explain it I feel like it will lose its meaning [plus there was so much I don’t feel like I can even remember all of it]. If anyone would like to hear my tape when I get home I am happy to share it!
I also had a great time, of course, spending time with the kids at Bethany. [John Paul, Alex and James from Praise House were asking me all about Becca and Hunter and in fact gave me notes to bring back. I haven’t gotten the chance to go to the other houses yet but I still plan on it, don’t worry!]