Recently I found myself in a discussion through e-mail concerning personal words of prophecy. I simply thought I would share with you some practical considerations I made for handling such words. Be blessed.
If I might, I would like to contribute some to this discussion. First I would like to share a "cute" story from my own personal experience. In the last days of Bible college, I was starting to seek direction from the Lord as to "what's next" in my life. After all, I had gone to Bible college as I believe the Lord had led me to do. Now I needed to know what came next. As I walked across the stage and received my degree, I expected some great prophetic word from the Lord as to what direction I was to take. No such thing happened. All that happened was I walked across stage, received a handshake, my degree, and a Bible. I felt very disappointed. No word! This deeply bothered me! I sought the Lord over the matter, and a few months later he finally spoke to me on this issue, rather playfully the Lord said to me one day, "Jimmy you idiot, I gave you a Bible!"
Not to by any means sound like a cessationist-- As you know, I fully believe in the prophetic gifts being for today, and believe myself to stand in the prophetic tradition-- but I believe we as Pentecostals/Charismatics put way too much stock on "personal prophecy." Whether it be a word given through another person, or a direct revelation through the Spirit. The fact of the matter is that we have been given God's word, which is more than sufficient for all that we need pertaining to life. Indeed, while personal prophecy and revelation has it's definite God ordained place and function within the body, I believe it to be much more rare than many so-called prophetical schools would have us to believe. I've been a Christian for about ten years, and called by the Lord into a prophetic ministry for about 7 or 8 of those years. Personally speaking, in these years as a Christian and as a minister of the word, I could probably count on one hand all the direct words the Lord has given me through the Holy Spirit about things getting ready to happen in my life. Likewise, I could probably count on my other hand all the personal words of prophecy I have given to specific individuals. And even then, those words were usually just a citation of a passage of Scripture.
Not to by any means hold myself up as the perfect model for this, as I have been weak in my faith at times these ten years, and each believer has a unique gift of grace and measure of faith given to them that differs from my own, but, generally speaking, I think my experience is meant to be normative. Proverbs 3:4-6 comes to mind:
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."
When this is the case, I have found that I really seldom am in need of a personal word from the Lord in my own life. When I simply seek the Lord with all my heart, and seek to walk according to what is already written in the word, I have found that He simply works things out in my life without needing to tell me anything that is not already contained within the Scriptures themselves. No doubt, sometimes He will actually tell me something that is getting ready to happen, or will give a word to another brother or sister for me. But what I have personally experienced, especially in regard to a word from another brother or sister, is that such a spoken word is usually (though not always) something in regard to what the Lord has already been dealing with me about.
Ultimately God wants us to put our trust in Him through a heart that has abandoned itself to Him. And sometimes I have found that the only way He can do that is to remain utterly silent on many issues. He simply wants us to get out there and walk. When we walk in the reality of Psalm 23, with the Lord being our shepherd, we will find that He rarely has to speak to us. Indeed, He really doesn't have to, as we are walking in the reality of Christ and life in Him, and trusting in Him to guide us to the still waters. What more need He to say to us other than what has already been said in the faith once and for all handed down to the saints?