Is Your World in Ruins? You Can Prophesy the Solution!
And they shall rebuild the old ruins,
They shall raise up the former desolations,
And they shall repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations.
Isaiah 61:4
Here is what New Testament prophecy is not.
Prophecy is not staring at our sin-laden cities, regions, or people groups, and pronouncing judgment upon them.
Prophecy is not declaring the forthcoming wrath and vengeance of an angry God Who is intent on destroying people, places, and planets.
Prophecy is not picking up some spiritual “signal” and speaking forth that signal, as if the signal is the solution. (for example, if someone is supernaturally informed of oncoming crisis or calamity, the prophetic response is not to run about, declaring the catastrophe as an inevitable expression of God’s anger and wrath towards sin). God’s wrath was poured out and satisfied on Jesus Christ. Period.
God Restores to Greater Glory
The New Testament prophetic protocol is described beautifully in Isaiah 61, verse 4. We are not denying a world lying in ruins and the countless lives wallowing in sinful shambles. This is the unfortunate reality we are confronted with every day. However, our call as a prophetic people is to release words, decrees and acts that raise up the former desolations and rebuild the old ruins. In fact, Paul describes prophecy as that which “builds up” (1 Cor. 14:3) in the same way we read about re-building the old ruins in Isaiah 64. Prophecy sees beyond the ruins – it sees the glory of their former state, calls them back to that place, and, through the supernatural power of God resting upon these prophetic words, actually increases the glory that the ruins once displayed. God’s restoration process always brings about greater glory than the former condition.
For example, Eden. The former glory was God walking with man. It is unfortunate that we consider Eden the benchmark of mankind’s spiritual experience. It was glorious, but the restoration produced by the blood of Jesus released an even more glorious reality. Man fell into sin, and now, because of God’s restoration process, with man has bee upgraded to in man because of the Holy Spirit. Glorious!! This is what brought the Apostle Paul to a place of sheer awe in 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 as he considered the glory of the New Covenant compared to the glory of the old.
You Too Can Prophesy!
Oh and by the way, you do not have to occupy the office of a prophet to be considered a prophetic person. Because of the Holy Spirit, the cry of Moses has been fulfilled: “Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29)
All of us have the opportunity to prophesy. In fact, we are often faced with one of two options when it comes to life’s problems: Prophesy solutions or agree with disaster. Release supernatural answers or decree destruction. Call out or call forth.
This is not “name it, claim it,” find some proof-text in Scripture, confess it twenty-times, and bam, all of your troubles are over. God wants to take us deeper than that. He wants us to model Jesus, Who only said what He heard the Father say. God wants your words to carry the very life and creative power of heaven into the darkest places on Earth. Some of us will physically go to these places, but we all have the opportunity to prophesy in the place of prayer and intercession. Again, it’s asking ourselves: “Will we speak the problem or declare the divine solution?” Declaring God’s solutions releases prophetic power, rebuilds ruins, raises up desolations, and sows into radical societal reformation.
You Can Access God’s Supernatural Solutions
How do we access these divine solutions? It’s simple, really. Intimacy with Holy Spirit and grounding in the Word.
True prophetic ministry is birthed out of intimacy with God. Jesus moved prophetically. Think about it. What he said and did often had the people hailing Him as a prophet. Why? Because during His earthly ministry, Jesus Himself continually called forth that which was a reality in heaven and released it into the Earth. It was normal for Him to call into today that which was reserved for another day.
Think about it. By enjoying intimacy with the Holy Spirit, we actually discover and hear what the Father is saying! The Spirit of God searches the deep things of God (see 1 Cor. 2:9-12) – and more than that, He reveals them to us. I promise you this, the Spirit does not merely clue us onto forthcoming problems or calamities to talk about how bad they are going to be. His agenda does not involve us talking about how desolate our cities are, how deeply in sin certain regions are, how lost the people are, and how hopeless a state the world is presently in. We don’t deny these realities. At the same time, we refuse to bow to them either. We call them out for one purpose, and that is to call forth the divine plans and restorative purposes of God into the Earth!
You Can Speak What God is Saying!
If we are enjoying true intimacy with Holy Spirit and have hearts anchored in the Word, we become a people possessed with supernatural solutions. In short, we start hearing what the Father is saying.
To ruins, He says – be rebuilt!
To desolate places, He says – rise up!
To ruined cities, He says – be repaired!
Is God speaking these things audibly out of heaven, causes the Earth to shake at the thundering of His voice? No. He’s given that mission to you and to me, for when we speak what He is saying, we cease becoming carriers of mere words. Our words become that of Christ’s, Who said - The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)
And you know what? As your mouth becomes His mouthpiece and your words become apostolic and ambassadorial for the government of Heaven, the earth will shake. The ground will tremble. Governments will shift. Entire nations will be saved. Your city, regardless of how dark, sin-stained, and in-shambles it is, will experience an in-breaking of God’s restorative power. The key? We need to stop agreeing with the ruins and start declaring “be rebuilt in Jesus’ Name!”