Holiness Unto The Lord

Where are the Prophetic Elders?

  Around 40 years ago, in a little  Baptist church, as a new Christian. This church was having some “strange” prophetic stuff taking place. Now just for context this Church, due to the influence of the Vineyard movement was already experiencing small moves of healing. But the prophetic was starting to rise in the background.

 Of course, this brought up issues. The issues were mainly because this was a new thing. All we had at this point was Vineyard teaching on the gifts concerning healing, providing a working framework. But the prophetic, we had very, very little. In effect what we had was more questions than answers so people were really doing odd stuff, and then claiming it was God. In reality, looking back, it was mostly people being people, justifying their actions under the guise of the Holy Spirit.

  At this point, I was already getting known for a few things so some people came to me to ask the big question…”Why?”

Why this and not that?

How come this is ok, should not someone say something?

Does not scripture say…?

  To my surprise when I opened my mouth to answer I said something I was not expecting to come out, “The problem you are seeing is a lack of Spiritual mentorship. Older prophets should be teaching younger prophets. Just like older pastors should be teaching younger pastors. Right now there are no older prophets, so we are enduring under a state of immaturity.”

  This Day.

  Over the years I have thought about that answer many times. And part of me as the years progressed has been welcoming the growth of the many prophetic movements. But something was…off. There were things out there that either should have been or should not have been taking place. This included practices, habits, and methods that produced very little fruit.

  Some people had the wrong mindset of who is a prophet and who just happens to dip their toes in it. A case in point would be a new, young Christian who just had a spiritual experience. Those above them would often jump to the conclusion that “Oh my gosh you must have the gift of prophecy so therefore, you must be a prophet!”

  By that flawed logic, I must be a plumber because I work in a hardware store and can, with a degree of accuracy diagnose your plumbing problems. The reality is, just as there are many homeowners who can fix your plumbing issues, there are people who have a touch of the prophetic who can help a person out spiritually. These people are not true prophets, these people are just helpful, prophetically-minded Christians who are wandering along their own journey, trying to help people along the way.

  This is why I have NEVER called myself a prophet. I simply have a hard time calling myself something the Lord has never said to me. Truthfully there have been people who have seen me in this role, and perhaps they are seeing something I can not. But, this is not something that is a priority in my life. When it happens, it happens and I am content with that.

  Another issue I have seen is what I call failed progression, I have a fairly ok memory and I remember a large handful of prophetic words spoken 20 -30 years ago. So many of them have totally proven out to be bunk. And others I am still waiting to see them take place.

  Then there is the issue of untouchability. Prophetic and Apostolic Leaders are to be hospitable and growing into the characteristics of a Biblical elder. So many times, these leaders are unapproachable, they carry with them an atmosphere of being higher than the common people, regardless of what they say on stage. This of course is partly due to the “handlers” or the “yes-men” that they cultivate around themselves. These trained people, through their words and actions help to keep the people away from the “man of god.” All these things and more feel like dark clouds on a distant horizon, troublesome, and uneasy…but so far away that it was pointless to do anything about it.

  But things are getting exposed, the little trickles of exposure that happened with Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker decades ago started to lift the carpet. But then in 90’s things started to pick up a little in the Catholic world as hundreds of priests got exposed. Things then shifted more as the S.B.C. started getting hit and the spiritual momentum shifted back to the Charismatic world with Todd Bentley in 2019. 

  Famous leaders struggled to suppress the story and in the end, I would say that they effectively did so. But then… Mike Bickel hit the social media news feed. The same players tried the same tactics they did with Bentley and it blew up in their faces. As a result, the steam roller is now picking up speed as more and more names are getting connected.

  As I have written about, this is the time the House of Cards is going to fall. So many names are now getting connected that it is fair to say, no one will remain untouched. The wisest thing ministries can do is confront the issues of sexual immorality in leadership head-on. But almost no one is doing that right now, and this head-in-the-sand tactic will backfire on them.

So how does this affect the Prophetic?

  A prophetic friend, Pam Clark once saw a vision of a withered black finger. As soon as I heard this I realized the Lord was speaking of the current condition of the prophetic. If you do a search across scripture on the issue of Sexual Immorality and its effect on people and nations. You will quickly realize that whenever it is present, victory never happens. Israel lost battle after battle, suffered disease and many other things until the problem was destroyed.

  In the New Testament, the Book of Acts… it was listed as one of the few requirements, that the gathering of Apostolic elders under James placed on Gentile Christians. So not only was it a major sin in the Old Testament, but the requirement to stay away from it was reconfirmed in the New Testament by Apostolic authority.

  So Consider This Question. 

  If for what appears to be decades the “senior” prophetic and apostolic leadership in the Charismatic movement was secretly engaged in Sexual Immorality. Then… does that not explain why we have struggled, with so few victories to show for our efforts?

  Let me bring this back to what I said at the start (40 years ago) “The problem you are seeing is a lack of Spiritual mentorship. Older prophets should be teaching younger prophets. Just like older pastors should be teaching younger pastors. Right now there are no older prophets, so we are enduring under a state of immaturity.”

  The reality is we have been under an illusion, we have had so few senior prophetic elders worthy of learning from. Many of these have had powerful spiritual experiences, but there seems to be no real maturity.

With that in mind, perhaps the best course of action is if the Lord calls you to be a prophet. Is your first job should not be to seek more spiritual experience but to seek Him for Holiness.