LET’S TALK ABOUT PROPHETIC TEAM MINISTRY
Filled with hope and surrounded by 7 women, I sat awaiting words of insight to encourage, comfort, and challenge me. Receiving and providing prophetic ministry has changed my life, and once again this week, I had the privilege of participating in the flow of the Holy Spirit.
The week before I had contacted a beloved Pastor friend to sign off on some verification documents for an advanced counseling course I was completing. When we got together for coffee, she mentioned a Christian Writer’s Conference she was attending in a few days, and suggested I consider it.
Naturally, I immediately accessed my mind’s file cabinet of recent dreams. Was there one filed which pointed to my attending this conference? Was it the Lord’s desire that I go? And would my husband be OK with it, and with the cost? Hmm… I’d have to see.
Dr. Kay took me to the website.
“This conference must be professional, the site is well done,” I thought. The grid of workshops and the bios of facilitators were impressive. I knew my titles and outlines for books had been piling up on my computer. “Perhaps now’s the time to get more information,” I contemplated.
Before I could get to my journal, I remembered a dream from the week earlier where I sat in a classroom feeling overwhelmed at times by the depth and breadth of the content, but a friend sat to my left at the desk-built-for-two and kept me encouraged.
With the support of my husband and a scholarship from the conference director, I found myself packing and soon on my way. In Estes Park, Colorado, I rubbed shoulders with and heard from authors, editors, publishers, web developers, and marketing specialists. They provided much more information and inspiration than I had imagined, making my learning curve steep.
The conference was attended by Christians of all kinds: conservatives, liberals, denominationalists, evangelicals, and charismatics; those connected with magazines, books, non-fiction, fiction, romance, historical fiction, and even science fiction.
A tradition was in place to provide prayer at the end of the conference for anyone who wanted it, this time with the shofar blower anointing participants with oil from a ram’s horn. So there I sat on a Saturday evening joined by a small gathering of women, all strangers but my friend.
As the intercessors gathered around the first recipient, their godliness, knowledge of the Word, gentleness and prophetic giftedness and soon became evident as they prayed for and encouraged each other.
Let’s step back a second. If prophetic giftedness is something you’ve been taught is not-of-God or ended with the closing of the canon, this is a good time to jump to DOES GOD STILL SPEAK TODAY? And if you’re wondering how believers can operate in the prophetic since Old Testament prophets were expected to be flawless, I will get to that in another place… most likely a course.
So what does prophetic team ministry accomplish? And what does it look like?
WHAT PROPHETIC TEAM MINISTRY DOES
1) … encourages, comforts, challenges, develops and brings insight to the recipient so that he or she may move forward with more confidence in God, His presence, and His plan.
2) … brings confirmation, insight, and strategy to the recipient. (And by the way, beneficiaries of prophetic ministry are advised to never move upon any words that have not somehow been confirmed.)
3) … builds the faith of the ministers. (After praying for God to share what’s on His heart for a person, I can’t tell you how many times an image has popped into my head only to have the message connected to it exactly confirmed by what another prophetic minister saw.)
WHAT PROPHETIC TEAM MINISTRY LOOKS LIKE
1. What distinguishes prophetic team ministry from psychic readings is that prophetic ministers ensure that their information comes through the voice of the Holy Spirit of the living God rather than any other spirit. This takes place due to the minister’s faith in Christ, worship, and prayer. And that a minister is hearing from the voice of truth is confirmed by prophetic content within the ministry time.
2. The content in prophetic team ministry generally includes affirmations to the recipient, and these often express the pleasure God receives through their lives. This helps encourage and build up the recipient.
3. God consistently reveals how He sees the person, identifying them specifically as in Judges 6:12. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” This builds courage in the recipient for the task he is called to.
4. When the person is feeling emotional pain, the Lord never seems to neglect bringing comfort by showing that He was present at the time of trauma and is still present. God used a gingerbread house, for instance, to communicate His pleasure with a grieving young mother of twins who had lost a daughter.
5. Sometimes God simply leaves fingerprints- just something to confirm that it truly is the Holy Spirit (who knows all) talking, something He did in my case (noted below).
6. The Lord through prophetic team ministry will sometimes verify or eliminate a strategy the recipient has been contemplating. One woman who was contemplating getting her message out by finishing and publishing the books she had started, was told not to fear and that “eggs would be hatching”.
7. And it’s not unusual to see the Lord GENTLY challenge the recipient to stay within the boundaries, correct a line of thinking or adjust a behavior pattern. This frequently comes through an team member’s announcement of a personal victory in a particular area.
8. Remember that prophetic team ministry is not supposed to just fill in all the blanks. If we knew everything, we wouldn’t need that faith for tomorrow that God so desires. We see, but we see dimly as compared to how we will see when we face to face with the Lord. I Corinthians 13:12
9. Trained and experienced prophetic team ministers are led by the Spirit to speak positively into the recipient’s life, only at the exact time they feel the unction, and to avoid dominating other prophetic ministers.
10. Trained and experienced prophetic team ministers hold each other accountable, and make sure the recipient knows to test and confirm prophetic words before acting on them.
We heard and saw all of the above during our prayer time at the conference. God came through as usual- providing hope, help, and healing. Through laughter and tears we gave and received… and with an unexpected bonus: new friends. Friends who’ve bonded in a precious deep way, friends who’ve been vulnerable with each other in both giving and receiving. And while we make the trek back home to New York, West Virginia, Philadelphia, or the colorful territory of Colorado, we continue our prayer support in spirit.
And as for me, when it was finally my turn to receive, I wasn’t disappointed. Undoubtedly changed by the special anointing and unified prayer, I received words that brought on a grin or a tear, precious words of truth and insight. And just for the fun of it, God left some fingerprints. One young woman unwittingly told me my internet password and asked what significance the Ferris wheel had for me (George W Gale Ferris is up-line from me and our family continues to be proud).
So what is a “Ferris Wheel Anointing”? To answer the question, just look at the first Ferris Wheel. It was the award-winning exhibition of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Picture this:
• The axle alone weighed weighed 46 1/2 tons
• 40-seats per car, 64 cars, a capacity of 1440
• From the highest point the riders were thrilled by unprecedented panorama from a height of 264 feet (26 stories)!
• It was built as a technology feat to rival the Eiffle Tower from the previous World’s Fair in Paris
A “Ferris Wheel Anointing” is an anointing of a high and massive vision fulfilled.
I receive it!
Next week we will be praying for the Prophetic Dream Community to receive this Ferris Wheel anointing. Please send your specific requests via comment below. Love to hear from you!
If you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing prophetic team ministry for yourself, I suggest you search it out and go for it!
Remember: Each of us receives our own dreams, and each of us knows our own state of affairs. Dreamers are intended to make the best interpreters of their own dreams as they grow in understanding of the parabolic language of dreams.
I’m not you, but that’s my view! Every Blessing!
Lynmarie
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