My Prophetic Journey Part 8: The Challenge of the Roller Coaster

Credit: Neil Howard/Flickr/Creative Commons

[This is the eighth in a series of articles on the ministry of the prophet and gift of prophecy.]

In the last few articles in this series we looked at four lessons God taught me in my journey in the prophetic. This one is also an unavoidable lesson.

Lesson 5 – The Challenge of the Roller Coaster

At times having a prophetic gift can be like living on a roller coaster. When your word hits the mark and saves the day, you’re a super hero – on top of the world! But when you get it wrong or it’s a challenging word that just gets strange stares, and the worship leader is encouraged to sing something, anything – then what? The roller coaster descends full speed to the bottom! But you are not alone, and there is hope!

I have heard from a number of prophets that God often chooses the weak to show His strength, and that many who are called to the prophetic struggle with insecurity. His plan is to change us, to do a deep deep work until we are so grounded on the Rock Christ Jesus that we can’t be shaken.

My acceptance comes from my heavenly Father first; what others think is secondary. Boldness in this does not come from arrogance or self-importance, but from brokenness, as described in the story of the redemption box in Part III of this series.

One way that God helped me with insecurity was the area of being adopted by the Father. Ephesians 1:3-6 talks about our being chosen and adopted by our heavenly Father through Christ.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.” (NKJ)

Before the world was formed He chose us, and by Christ He made us accepted in Him. I get this.

My wife and I adopted two kids. In pursuing the adoption, we were shown all the information available about these two great kids, and we said, “Yes.” We knew God had provided them for us and us for them.

After the adoption went through God spoke so clearly to me with the passage from Ephesians, that just as we had known all about our kids and said Yes to them, He knew all about my past, all about my failures and insecurities, and still chose me to be His child. I’m a child of the King, and if I fail at times, I’m still His child. My adoption was finalized by Jesus’ blood.

Let me share an example of a roller coaster experience in my life. Several years ago I shared a word over a woman at church. I shared the word and she just looked at me like I had grown horns. It did not seem to register with her at all, and she left politely but confused. I had shared the word I got the best I could – God, what went wrong? But – my security is in Him, He’s my Father.

Fast forward to over a year later – One night in a Tim Horton’s parking lot I heard someone calling my name. I walked over, and it was that woman from church. She was excited to see me, and said, “Remember that word?”

She was so excited, because a number of things had happened in her life over the past year that lined up with that word. For her the word had been like a heads-up from God, and she was happy, and I was too!

It’s good to remember that the roller coaster that goes down comes back up again – just do your best and roll with it!

More in this series: