書拉密女之舞

天上的雲捎來彩虹一般的想念，灑落空中的是金色的陽光，在如煙瀰漫的霧騰中，我看見你的手，帶著慈愛溫柔，纏裹了流血的傷痛，你以自己的心交換傷心，以你的鞭傷交換衣不蔽體的傷口，用你釘痕中流的血贖回風中顫抖的兒女，將你的尊貴和榮耀戴在他們身上，是你親自甘心樂意的，無悔的愛。

今天聽約翰米勒牧師講道，說現在很多豐盛神學把神的百姓帶錯了路，要結出果子來與悔改的心相稱，就是只有真理和真實能帶下神真正的能力，大家都哭求渴望神，聖靈的火帶來真實的悔改，一切的豐盛的祝福是不是帶向更渴慕神，更願意為耶穌付代價，否則可能是貪心而已。

Notes on "Growing in the Prophetic"

by Mike Bickle

Chapter 4 : False Equations

Wrong Assumptions about anointed persons:
1. Anointing equals Character
2. Anointing equals 100% Doctrinal Accuracy
3. Anointing equals Divine Endorsement of Ministry Style

1 ) Anointing does not equal Character
Assuming that an anointed person, who hears 'some' things very clearly, has godly character can be disastrous. You can begin to feel insecure in what you know to be true and lay down your God given authority. "I felt this way for a season and the result was that I abdicated my position of leadership to those with powerful prophetic gifts."

"Sometimes the prophetic gifts will continue to operate even when there is an inner crumbling taking place in their private lives." Saul is a picture of this. Saul was allowed to remain King of Israel while he was in sin and rebellion and was patiently used by God to win great battles. God partially blessed Israel under Saul - but only to a point. "The message for prophets, leaders and church people is this : God's gifts are freely given as a sign of His mercy, not His Approval!" (They are given to strengthen the body not to feed a person’s need for acceptance before God or people.) Matthew 7 "We prophesied, cast out demons and performed miracles. But Jesus says He does not know them." Don't be impressed with POWER.
Wimber was said to separate ministry from his family life. He left the ministry to God. He did not seek God's approval by getting "signs and wonders" or preaching. But He focused on how he related to his wife and kids. Was he patient, kind, loving? ( The value was on Fruit not Ministry Activities )
We must beware of high-mindedness. "High-minded people are those who consider that because they are doing such an 'important' work for God, and because His power is manifested through them, that they are not accountable for things like integrity, honesty and kindness - especially in the small and unseen matters of life."

2 ) Anointing does not equal 100% Doctrinal Accuracy
"Throughout church history there have been a lot of anointed people who came to hold strange doctrines. The people who followed them assumed that a person whom God uses in a genuine prophetic or healing ministry must have 100% doctrinal purity. They reasoned that if God could give him (William Branham) genuine prophetic information about people's lives, then why didn't God in the same way give him sound doctrine?" I Cor 13:9 "We see in part and prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes we will know in full." ( Perhaps the ministry through Branham to people was an act of mercy of God’s behalf that was separate from what Branham personally chose to believe doctrinally about God?)

3 ) Anointing does not equal Divine Endorsement of a Ministry Style
God gives the power to heal or prophesy or teach by grace, not by working for it. We begin to get "spiritually superstitious" when we try to duplicate the environment where we got healed, sensed intimacy with God or got that prophetic word. We think we have to do it the same every time to get God to 'do His stuff.' People find themselves trying to recreate the setting so they can see God's power again. ( People shaking on their own because at one time in the past God touched them deeply and they shook at that time.)
People copied Bob Jones' finger to finger style of prophesy. The style wasn't important, that was just how God spoke to Bob.
Methodology or ministry style does not produce power or anointing.
Some ministers have come to think that anointing is equivalent with mood or atmosphere. Some think the music has to be just right (Kathrun Kuhlman & Dino), that there can be not crying babies (Benny Hinn), or that the room has to be arranged just right or else Holy Spirit will lift! This is just SPIRITUAL SUPERSTITION !

Summary Thought : Spiritual gifts are given for the purpose of blessing the BODY, not to exalt the person through whom they come. I Cor 12:7 "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of ALL."

Summary Thought : No matter how powerfully or clearly someone may hear from the Lord -- We only hear PART ! They only see in PART ! These people need to work with others to get the whole message and to apply it correctly for the building up of the body.

Chapter 6 : Embodying the Prophetic Message

Concerning correcting prophetic people in public for erroneous words:
You must correct them or else everyone will take liberties while prophesying. However you must do it gently ( and firmly ) or else the young ones will be afraid to risk giving a word.

Mike Bickle concerning pride :
In 1989, we seemed to be eating with a golden spoon. I was traveling with John Wimber and speaking regularly to crowds of thousands of people at international conferences. After a while I grew tired of it physically and emotionally. However, I enjoyed the attention and honor more than I knew. People loved the messages and queued up to buy our tapes. I was meeting prominent Christian leaders from different nations. One of them said that what was happening in Kansas City was the freshest thing in the last decade. My pride was being stroked and strengthened. I was overwhelmed with he invitations to preach and requests for interviews. A dozen publishers wanted me to write books for them. Several companies sent proposals to distribute our tapes in their nation. It was physically impossible to answer the multitudes of letters and phone calls that came monthly. We were completely overwhelmed and in over our heads. We complained about the pressures, but actually our team enjoyed the attention more than we cared to admit. We were out of touch with our pride, our limitations and exactly what it was that God wanted to do in us.

Two things should have warned us that we were in pride:
1) We were partying alone and didn't care for the rest of the body
2 ) We didn't think we NEEDED other ministries.

We were greatly tempted to retaliate when the persecution came in 1990.
The Lord told us we were not to strike back. John Wimber used the illustration of Solomon with the 2 women claiming to be the mother of a child to advise us. John said that if we really cared about the bigger purpose of God, we would not retaliate. It would only create a destructive fury, and the purposes of God ( the child ) would be divided.
It was in our anger and desire for revenge that we discovered our selfish ambition. The Lord said, "The measure of your anger towards these men is the measure of your unperceived ambition." I reacted out loud and said, "No! It's not my unperceived ambition. Lord, I care about your Kingdom and your name being defamed." Then the Lord asked me a question, "Why then aren't you this angry when my name gets defamed when other ministries are maliciously attacked?" I had to be honest and admit that I was not mad when other Christian leaders were being criticized. It was the blow to my reputation that really bothered me. I saw with greater clarity that I had a selfish agenda that I was afraid might be hindered if the attacks persisted.
We were unconsciously monitoring our ministry by the gauge of numerical and financial success. The true gauges of success? Was our heart growing in tender affection for Jesus? Were we growing in our ability to endure hardship out of love? Could we bless our enemies with joy?
We were tempted to say that the attacks were all of the devil. In retrospect, we see that God's hand in all of this - even using the things that came from Satan's hand as well. Some of the criticisms were valid (especially concerning our pride) others were not.

We seek to integrate trained teachers and seminary-trained pastors with prophetic people and gifted musicians.
Discipline : Hebrews 12:3
1 Do not despise His correction and run in denial
2 Do not be discouraged under His loving reproof
Do not fall into self-condemnation and hopelessness
3 Do not become embittered at God for His dealings in our lives

Those who become discouraged by God's redemptive disciplines decide to cease following hard after God. It is too painful and the cost is too great. They decide it is no longer worth it.
It is challenging for some to believe not only that God loves us, but that He also likes us and enjoys us, even in our immaturity. Many people actually give up on their walk with the Lord because of their misconceptions regarding His nature.

Chapter 8 : God's Strategy of Silence

Any kind of regular supernatural manifestations and giftings must be accompanied by a great measure of spiritual maturity, or the pressures will become a stumbling-block surely to be tripped over.
One of the more difficult things to deal with as a prophetic minister is coming face to face with people in great need, only to find that God is completely silent on the matter. God's heart and mind may have previously been revealed to them with great clarity and astounding detail concerning a dozen other people in the same congregation.
This is a awkward situation, which will inevitably arise, presents a real test of character and maturity for the prophetic person. If he or she says, 'I have no word for you,' people will be disappointed, if not angry, at the response. The person's ministry reputation may be on the line. If he or she is in the prophetic ministry full time, future invitations and honorariums may be affected. People's faith in them will be diminished since they only give prophetic words occasionally. The pressures of people's expectations and assumptions push many prophetic ministers into dangerous waters that can eventually shipwreck their integrity as well as their ministry. The great temptation is to give a word you don't have in order to release the pressure of the moment. It is the same temptations that provokes the teacher to answer a question using information of which he is not certain. The teacher desperately hopes no one listening realizes that he's way beyond what he actually knows.
The impatient King Saul, tarrying for the prophet Samuel is a prime example of this. King Saul had gathered the people in Gilgal to fight against the Philistines, but Samuel delayed in arriving to offer the sacrifice. Seeing that after 7 days of indecision and inaction his army was beginning to desert, Saul could wait for the prophet no longer. A full-scale national crisis was at hand. He went ahead and broke God's law by offering the sacrifice himself, even though Samuel had specifically warned Saul to wait for him to do it. When Samuel arrived Saul said, 'The Philistines were ready to attack me at Gilgal and the sacrifice was not yet made to God. Therefore I felt compelled, and offered the sacrifice myself.'
God's silence or inactivity at a time when we desperately want God to act or speak reveals the spiritual maturity of both the people and the prophet. In the same way the delay of Moses revealed the golden calf that was 'hidden in their hearts.' On the other hand, disillusioning questions about God's lack of intervention and what seems to be God's inattention, cause King David to agonize and pour out his soul in the writing of the Psalms. In the instance of the golden calf, waiting revealed the inclination of the people to idolatry, but in David's case, waiting revealed that his heart was truly after God.
Isaiah 50 specifically refers to walking in darkness to those who fear God and are His servants. The Syro-Phoenician woman was another case. It seems like Jesus in uncaring towards her because of His silence. Yet the effect is that it draws out her faith! Then He greatly praises her, 'O, woman, great is your faith!'
Because of our preconceived notions we draw wrong conclusions from God's silence or His apparent lack of intervention on our behalf. Most commonly, we conclude that God's love for us has waned or that we are unworthy of His attention or perhaps that we are being punished for something. However that was not the case with Lazarus! That was not the case with John the Baptist in prison. People stumble over the fact that God does not speak or act in the way we think He should, but from Isaiah 50 we learn not to manufacture our own light or solutions.

Chapter 9 : Origins of the Prophetic Call

a) Supernatural Giftedness
b) Godly Character
c) Matured Wisdom

- - With some it is the slow growth of the prophetic anointing
- - With others it is imparted through the laying on of hands

The calling of God on your life is a function of His divine plan, issued before you ever lifted a finger to serve Him. Bible training, discipline, fasting, and praying will not change your calling. However, these spiritual disciplines will enhance the release of the calling that has already been divinely determined.
There is always a temptation to want something before we understand it. Then once we've got it and understand the difficulties associated with it, the temptation is to want to get rid of it. If a person has a desire to be involved with prophetic ministry, it should not be because it seems exciting. The pain, the perplexities and the attacks upon these people are far greater than anybody knows. The glory that appears in a conference setting is so untypical of their everyday lifestyle.
We encourage people to find their joy in loving God, knowing that God loves them and in being a faithful servant. They should not think that some spectacular ministry will make their life happy. I have never met a prophetic person yet whose life was significantly made happy because of his or her prophetic gift. Typically they have experienced demonic attack, opposition from godly people and great perplexity in their own soul. They may see so much, but they often can't understand the full meaning of what they see.
Prophetic ministers seem to have more disappointment with God than the average person. They often see clearly how things should be or how God plans them to be. But they have to wait in faith for a longer time because they have seen further ahead. They are much more prone to the Proverbs 13:12 difficulty : 'Hope deferred makes the heart sick.' Because their expectations are typically higher, they are typically more deeply disappointed.
It is easier for other people to enjoy life as it is because they are not so burdened with how things are supposed to be, and they don't have to live in the pain of it all the time. Many people imagine that if they could more clearly discern the voice of God, then He would surely lead them into a problem-free and totally satisfying life on earth.

However, 2 Cor 6:4-10, defines negative pressures (4-5), positive pressures (6-7), and the divine paradoxes (8-10) The Scripture teaches us that we are destined to live with a certain groan for more of God in our souls. Paul refers to this lack of perfect satisfaction in Romans 8:22-23: 'For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that . . . even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.' The gift of the Holy Spirit is a down payment of the full inheritance that will be ours to fully enjoy in the age to come. Even full blown end time revival is not heaven on earth-read the book of Revelation! I find many people spending their spiritual, emotional, physical, and relational energies seeking ways to escape all the pain of this 'groan' with ourselves. 1 Cor 13:12 teaches us that in this age we only know and see in part. Our victory and satisfaction are not yet in fullness.

Chapter 10: Pastors and Prophets

I have had private conversations with many wonderful pastors who were frustrated because they were not able to move in spiritual gifts as freely as some of the people in their congregation. Often some of these prophetic-type people in the church are spiritually immature in other ways. The pastor feels insecure and thinks they are apparently more 'in tune with the Spirit'. Consequently he feels too intimidated to correct such prophetically gifted people.
'Dueling Prophet Sunday,' - each prophetic person was trying to give the higher and more impressive prophesy to the church on this Sunday morning. Bickle's response after being threatened by each prophet that if Bickle didn't accept their word the Holy Spirit would withdrawal from the church -- " 'I am finished with you two!' That was such a disillusioning time for me that I was tempted to do away with all of the prophetic ministry, the miracles, the supernatural confirmations - everything, and we would no longer have prophetic ministry in our church. Some broke inside me, and from that point on I was no longer afraid to confront prophetic ministers, even if they had previously had authority to call fire down from heaven. That's when it dawned on me that it was not the prophets who had the gifting and calling of governmental leadership in our church.
Most prophetic people are in touch with their giftings long before they cultivate the corresponding wisdom, humility and character that are necessary to succeed in prophetic ministry.
Prophetic people have a keen awareness of being answerable to God. Pastors have this too, but they also know they are answerable to the people. The pastor realizes that he is answerable to God, but know that, if there is a problem, on Monday morning he is going to hear it from the elders and from half of the congregation. The pastor also has the conflicts and practical pressures of meeting the budget. And when people get upset, they often leave and disrupt the economics of the church. The prophets usually don't live in that arena or with those pressures.
Prophetic process : the grace to receive the revelations is not the same as the anointing and grace to discern the interpretation. Bob Jones has an incredible gift of revelation, but he would tell you himself that he often tends to miss it on interpretation and application. We need divine wisdom on these issues.