I had a phone visit today with a man who tells me he has a friend who engages in prophetic evangelism. I told hiom I’d been reaching into prophetic evangelism myself for th last few months. He had questions about how to enter into it, and suddenly I realized my own breakthroughs almost always followed a particlular prayer. Here are three breakthroughs I experienced, and I list them because they may inspire you to reach for the same.
ONE. I was a student at Pinecrest Bible Training Center in upstate New York. [Pinecrest now has a new name, Bethany Bible Training Center.] I didn’t get along well with the other students. One day while praying, I had a bright idea. “Lord, I’m having a hard time loving the students all around me, but the Bible makes it clear thst You love them. Obviously, You see something in them that I don’t see. What is it? Could you cause me to see it too, so I can start loving the people around me, as You love them?”
Whether I knew it or not, I had just prayed the prayer of Ephesians 1:17-21 –
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what [is] the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated [Him] at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Soon, I was seeing the students all around me in the light of what Jesus had done for them at the cross, and in the power of His resurrection. Soon the language of II Corinthians 5 was teaching me not to see or know people after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
TWO. For me, prophetic ministry began there, and for years afterwards I was ministering prophetically in churches.
THREE. But then I read Mark’s version of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler. I noticed that Jesus, “Looking at him, loved him.” Again I prayed. “What did you look at – his face, the way he carried himself, or what? What did you see that made you love him? Could You teach me to look at people the same way?”
I used to look at people in terms of their choices. Sometimes I approved and sometimes I didn’t. But if I want to be prophetic, I need to clear my judgments and opinions out of the way. And now I began to see people in terms of God’s intention for them.
More than ever, the language of II Corinthians 5 describes the people I see in restaurants, in stores, and so on. But Psalm 139 also shows that God has created people with their unique gifts, talents, strengths. and weaknesses. Each is fearfully and wonderfully made. And then, I look at the blood of Jesus – the price God has paid to reconcile each to Himself. And the blood of Jesus shows me that everyone I meet is valuable to God. Otherwise, why would He have paid so much for them?
Finally, prophetic vision and flow have opened to me when I have asked God what He sees in people.” But it’s written that His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. So it shouldn’t surprise us that He looks at people differently than we do. What does He see in them? Ask Him for yourself. When He answers, you’ll love people as never you never did before. And as you see p[eople in the light of Jesus’love, it’s easy to tumble into a prophetic flow.
