School of the Prophets
July 31st, 2006 by Carl Thomas.I have never prayed for a gift of prophecy. Not once. I have never been to a prophetic conference. I don’t read prophetic websites. Most national prophecies that I hear of just sound like fanciful thinking. (Is it ok that I wrote that? Does anybody think that is judgement?)
There was a time that I knew a man who had run a school of the prophets. They taught people to start prophetic words with certain words and end with other certain words. I went to a meeting where a class that had graduated would minister as part of a final internship. I got a funny feeling about the whole thing. I saw a twenty something year old boy begin a prophetic word to an elder in the church with,
“The Lord says, ‘Son …
I kind of got the willies. Later, I heard a lady give a prophetic word about some gobily gook, begin to walk away, then turn around and say,
“Oh yeah. Thus says the Lord”
Selah
It was about that time that I wrote off the entire prophetic training thing for good. Now I continued to allow the Holy Ghost to train me. Especially because the only thing that the leadership of my church wanted me to do was shut up. They had a new accusation against me every week and the answer was always the same. Shut down the prophetic gift. Undaunted, I went on with the Lord, stood as a witness against that ministry, and in the Lord’s timing moved on. Halleuijah!
Now I find myself in an awkward position. I have a small group of young boys and they are all beginning to operate in the gifts. I find myself discipling them on the difference between what is God, what is the flesh, and what is delusion. One night I was talking with a father of one of the boy’s and he said,
You are doing a mighty work in these boys. I had really been praying that he could be instructed in a school of the prophets.
Inwardly I said, “huh? Is that what I am doing?” I shrugged it off and went on. After church yesterday I had several people who waited around to talk with me seperately. They all had questions about the ministry of the prophetic in some way. Some want clarification on a word, and others want to know how to minister what they are getting. (the answer is almost always, “In love”) I shared some of the small amount of wisdom that I have. Each seemed to be blessed and strengthened in their situations while gaining insight as to what is motivating them to act the way they have.
I still do not endorse the idea of teaching someone to prophesy. Loren Sanford has a book titled Purifying the Prophetic: Breaking Free from the Spirit of Self-Fulfillment. I have read an excerpt and it is excellent. You can follow his postings in the forums at Openheaven.com where he is calling national prophets on the carpet for wrong words. This is vital.
The most important lesson is that the gifts are for the benefit of all. If you think your gift places you in some elite category, you are wrong. Be it prophecy or teaching. And if you are not open to having peer level accountability, please do not step out in ministry.
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I have seen the stupidness os some “prophetic” churches. Pam and I minister in a church in Pattison TX every three months that I believe is one of the most ballanced prophetic churches in the country. In fact I told the pastor this morning his cahleenge as a psator is to keep that balance…because everyone will not be interested in that vein of the Spirit.
I believe God will begin to establish “Schools of the Prophets” in various parts of the country…but they will not be advertised nor thought of as such…it will just happen, like it has happened to and with you.
And God will get all the Glory!
Stay with it!
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I’m the one who should say nobody reads my blog
))))))
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David,
When you get to preach extended meetings for a living you don’t get to complain about blog stats. I do this because I dont get to spend my time preaching.
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Would that happen to be in Va? Just curious….
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Believe it or not, I’m not preaching again till Sunday night:)
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I see you have had quite a scary experience with the school of the prophetic.
However, I can recommend Bethel Church’s Bethel School of the Prophets.
Bethel School of the Prophets isn’t so much about how to start a prophetic word and how to end it and all that stuff. It’s about core values and how to share the word that God has given you. (Sometimes someone may be hearing from God, however, say things that God did not tell them to say). It’s about prophecying showing the love of God rather than revealing the sins of random people and potentially embarrassing them. Many of these people already know their sins. Bethel School of the Prophets is about finding the treasure in those people and building them up, not tearing them down.
Anyway, just thought I’d recommend that.
I know that Graham Cooke also did prophetic schools. I’m not sure if he still does. But a lot of his teachins are along the lines of Bethel.
I would recommend that you be careful when you hear “School of the Prophets” but at the same time, I’d be cautiously optimistic.
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If Bethel were not 3,000 miles away I would do lots of things there.
I agree with your post though. I always teach that love should be the motivator of every gift.
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There’s a Bethel School of the Prophets DVD set for sell on their web site. It’s not cheap though. Fortunately, I’m watching it with others from my church who are interested in the prophetic.
I’m actually trying to get out to Bethel to go to the ministry school they have.
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Good luck getting into Bethel’s ministry school. They had 5000 apps for 2000 openings.
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Carl,
See if Jesusculture.org is doing anything near you. That’s Bethel’s young adult/youth ministry. Now those guys ROCK!
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I’m a maryland resident and I’m looking for the school of prophecy here in maryland ,virginia and DC.If I’m in the rigth track please let me know your address of your school.
Thank you and God bless you
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