Prophetic Pendulum Swing

I am honestly a little torn right now.

On one hand I am happy there appears to be a reckoning in the Church around prophecy. But also concerned the pendulum might swing too far back to another time, a time where religious ritual practice alone becomes the dominant expression of faith filled believers.

My personal opinion is that we need health.

We need honesty and integrity.

And we need genuine prophetic activity in the Church.

The prophetic has been crying out for these attributes for far too long.

I have read statements celebrating the initial stages of dealing with problematic so called prophetic ministries. Some of these ministries have recently announced a period of removing themselves from public for whatever reason.

I am thrilled to finally see some accountability!

There have been many manipulators and apparent liars rampant for far too long!

A large problem for me with any extreme position in Christianity, its expression through practice, whether it be pro or anti Holy Spirit gifts etc, is that extremes look concerning to me.. 

Many appear to ignore the parts of scripture that don’t support their position while exaggerating the importance of others.

I don’t like the pendulum swing that comes with these moments sometimes.

Again I am for the prophetic. It is reflected in New Testament teachings.

I just want the accountability and honestly that is expected from other giftings and their use, to be applied here as well.

I have been a follower of Jesus since 1991. Have seen and experienced a little since then.

During that time I have “received” plenty of prophetic words from people who I have always hoped were just trying to do their best.

And we need to be honest here. 

Some of it was apparently spot on while others were ridiculously off the mark.

One one music tour I did traveling around at least half a dozen Churches, at every single one, someone approached me afterwards telling me that God had told them I would be back to be their youth pastor.

Did it confuse me or cause me to have a crisis of faith? No.

What it did do was cause me to pray and reflect on what was said, why they said it, and what was really potentially going on.

The Apostle Paul encouraged prophecy but also sober reflection and testing of what said.

I tried to apply that to this strange series of moments.

I think in part they recognised that I had giftings that could have benefit to their Church.

They prophesied based on what they saw and what they hoped they saw.

Their “humaness” got mixed with their revelation.

And I needed to take stock according.

I have experienced amazing prophetic words and prayers that have staggered me as to their accuracy, which came true not by my doing anything to make them a reality.

There are stories I could tell!

What am I trying to say?

I guess in the end we need to be passionate both ways to protect the pendulum swing in this moment being too strong.

We need sober judgement of the prophetic. And we need the prophetic.

The prophet needs accountability.

The receiver needs better understanding on how to process prophecy.

This is our moment to grow up.

I really hope we can.

Something to think about…