Word and Fire Ministries

I get so tired of self-appointed prophets who think they have a mandate from God to attack the Church, strip her naked and expose her every flaw. The Church is Christ’s Bride, and He loves her. When you touch her, you touch the apple of His eye. Yes, she has some warts and wrinkles at the moment (ok, a whole heap of warts and wrinkles) but He is working on that.

You who would be judge, jury and executioner of the Bride, let me ask you a few questions …

Have you wept before the Lord over the state of His Bride? Have you stood as a true intercessor, identifying with the Bride (you are, after all, part of her) and repenting on behalf of her … “both I and my father’s house have sinned” (Neh 1:6), “We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgements” (Dan 9:5) Does your heart break for the errors you see, or do you just rise up in holier-than-thou indignation?

Have you allowed the Lord to break you, dealing with your own sin so that you could be a clean vessel to carry His word to others? Have you brought your own hurts, rejections and injustices to the altar, surrendering them totally so that they do not become a filter through which you speak, clouding the word of God with your own pain? Have you allowed Him to strip you, not only of that which is “bad” in your life, but of that which is “good” but not “God”? Are you surrendering your will to Him, every step of the way? Are you walking day-by-day on that ever-narrowing path that takes you deeper and deeper into Him?

Have you cried out to God to strip you of every shred of pride, arrogance and self-righteousness, and then allowed Him to actually do it? Have you submitted yourself to the accountability of a local body, even if your ministry takes you far beyond the area of that local body? Are you teachable, even by those you consider less spiritual than yourself?

I can’t say it often enough: a call to the 5-fold ministry is a call to lay down your life. And that applies double – triple! – to the call of an apostle or prophet. A call to the apostolic or prophetic office does not put you at the top of the heap, but at the bottom. The moment you accept that call, you surrender all your rights. You are a gift to the Bride. That means you exist for the benefit of the Bride. If you are not laying down your life daily, moment-by-moment, for the Bride, then you have no right to accuse her before her Bridegroom.