Healthy foundations for prophetic ministry

Learning About Prophecy From The Apostles


Although the Bible gives us no examples of the Apostles prophesying, never-the-less, their response to a particular church problem gives us a principle that is characteristic of genuine prophetic ministry.

Read with me Acts 6:1-4:

"And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word."

Notice what they did not say. They did not say:

"We will give ourselves continually to prophesying."

Nor did they say:

"We will give ourselves continually to working miracles and healing the sick."

And finally, they did not say:

"We will give ourselves continually to evangelism."

They focused continually, not just from time to time, on prayer and the ministry of the Word. They knew that by maintaining a vibrant prayer life, they would receive from the Lord His plans for ministry. Getting away from the people and their problems and cares, and getting alone with the Lord in prayer was vital.

In prayer in other tongues, for instance, they would be edified, built up, recharged, as Paul would later write, "For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself." (I Cor. 14:4). Also, the twelve Apostles, like Paul, would privately pray in tongues, and pray in Hebrew. (I Cor. 14:15). They would sing in tongues, and they would sing in Hebrew. And by doing so, they would be built up in faith and in the anointing in order to minister to the people, fulfill their responsibilities, and keep themselves morally pure and on track.

In addition, they said that they would give themselves continually to the ministry of the Word. They remembered the Lord's instruction that the person who heard God's words and did them, was like a wise man who built his house upon a rock, and how that house withstood the storms of life. (Luke 6:48,49). Regardless of being Apostles, and regardless of being anointed, they had to build their own lives and ministries on God's written word. And they taught everyone else to do the same.

One of the great pitfalls of prophetic ministry is the temptation to build your entire ministry on the operation of spiritual gifts. Prophecy is precious, but don't build your ministry on prophecy. Tongues and interpretation are a blessing, but don't build your ministry on them or on the operation of any of the other gifts. Build your ministry, like the Apostles did, on prayer and ministering the word.

Brother Hagin urged all ministers, regardless of the gifts God used them in, to develop a solid preaching or teaching ministry. Sister Goodwin was adamant about that same principle. She had no interest whatever in sitting down and listening to someone's prophecies and visions. She much rather preferred to discuss God's written Word and to listen to God's Word.
I was surprised one day when she told me who one of her favorite TV ministers was: Charles Stanley--A Southern Baptist. He did not preach and teach on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the same way that Sister Goodwin believed. But she admired him she told me, "because he gets up there and preaches....the.....Word." She simply would not attend or watch meetings which consisted almost entirely of prophecy and spiritual gifts. She did not believe in an over-emphasis on spiritual gifts. That is wise.

In her prime, Sister Goodwin herself was a very strong preacher and teacher. Dad Goodwin wrote one time that Mom had preached a message to the congregation that you had to have on "an asbestos suit" in order to withstand. She did not build her personal ministry on prophecy alone. She put first the preaching and teaching of God's written Word. That is wise. She stayed the course and died in a rich old age, with much spiritual fruit, while William Branham, and some other prophets of her generation who placed less epmphasis on God's written Word, went off the deep end.

The plain fact of the matter is that any ministry built primarily on spiritual gifts, will not last.

I was an eye-witness to this some years ago. In a phone conversation, I was invited by a pastor I had never met, to come visit a series of services being held in his church by a prophet. Having seen so much nonsense over the years passed off as "prophetic ministry," I was skeptical, but I attended. And what a blessing it was!

This prophet ministered by the Word of Knowledge and the Word of Wisdom to many people in the service, including me. I had been living in this area only a few days, and I did not know the pastor, and had never heard of this prophet. So what he said to me, was entirely by the Spirit of God.

He said:

"Direction, direction...I need direction. Do I go this way? Or that? Inside, partly I'm happy, and partly I'm miserable."

He took my hand in a handshake and said:

"The word of prophecy is in you, you know that, don't you?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Be sure to give that when it comes to you."

"I do," I replied.

He finished, "God is going to put a new anointing upon you, and then the financial problem is going to turn." He laid his hands on my head for a second, then returned to the platform and ministered to others.

The prophet's "word" described me correctly at that moment. And the "new anointing" he told me would come, did indeed come about a year later. That anointing was the pastor's anointing, and afterwards, my finances did improve dramatically and have continued to do so to this day.

I was introduced to the prophet and pastor after the service. And over the course of the next two weeks or so, we had lunch together, and fellowshipped together several times. I also attended every one of his meetings that I could.

But I quickly became concerned about this brother. His gifts were real. In fact, he had flowing through him the strongest manifestations of the Word of Knowledge and the Word of Wisdom I had seen since my days with Sister Goodwin. But he was building his ministry entirely on spiritual gifts.

In each service, his pattern was the same. After the praise team left the platform, he would sit behind the piano, and sing a chorus or two of some old-time Pentecostal song. Sometimes he would go from that to immediately ministering to people through his gift. Other times, he would get out his bible, begin a sermon or read just a couple of Scriptures, but as soon as his gift began operating, he would stop the sermon in mid sentence, and begin ministering through his gift to individuals.

Night after night, he would read a Scripture or two, give about 10% of a sermon, and then go into ministering in the Spirit to people. After the anointing lifted, he would give a quick instruction about how to receive Christ as Savior, and give an altar call. A number of people came to Christ in those meetings.

I began to meet other ministers who had known this prophet for years and I asked them, "Have you ever heard this brother actually preach a full sermon?" And even those who had known him for years admitted they had not.

The meetings ended, and he returned to his home in a state hundreds of miles away. Months passed, and fellow ministers told me that the prophet was having alot of financial problems. Churches weren't supporting them like they really should have. Some of his meetings doubled and tripled the new converts and new members joining these churches.

He was preaching seven days a week, sometimes leaving a meeting, driving hundreds of miles without sleep, and walking in to a church just in time to start the service. He wasn't taking time to be refreshed in prayer. He wasn't feeding on the Word at all. In fact, he knew very little about the Bible.

Several forces came together at once in his life, and he sinned a sin. And the sin was one that was also illegal. He pled guilty, and was sentenced to a long prison sentence. He has been in prison for the last 12 years, and is still there. I've remained in touch with him, writing from time to time, remembering him at holidays, and sometimes sending him books. The day will come when he is released, and can slowly be restored to ministry, and I look forward to that day for him.

When he fell, people were shattered, and all asked "Why?"

Why?

Too much ministry. Not enough sleep.

No prayer to speak of. No study or ministry of the Word to speak of. He just built his whole ministry on spiritual gifts.

My friend's life and ministry imploded. And so has the life and ministry of every other prophet or minister I've known or heard of who did not exalt the preaching of God's Word above all else.

Brother Hagin and Sister Goodwin and many of the Pentecostal giants of old, were adamant about this principle. They had witnessed many genuinely anointed ministries eventually collapse into error and sin, from not adhering tightly to God's Word.

If you question this principle remember how long Brother Hagin and Sister Goodwin ministered prophetically, stayed true, never got off into error, and went to Glory with a clean, scriptural record:

Brother Hagin ministered over 60 years.

Sister Goodwin ministered over 50 years.

I've ministered for 17 years.

Someone who reads this blog recently asked me, "Well, what did they do when the Spirit of God started moving? Did they basically ignore that, until they had finished their message?"

No. Many times when the Spirit begins moving, especially prophetically, you have to respond rather quickly and yield to that anointing, or you quench it.

So the Goodwins took an approach that is worthy of us following. God used them wonderfully in the Gifts of the Spirit, and also used numerous members of their congregation similarly. But they always preached and taught God's written Word in every service.

As we all have experienced, Mom and Dad had times in which their service turned into a Holy Ghost meeting. During praise and worship the Spirit of God would begin moving so strongly that various miracles took place, God's presence moved in, and Mom and Dad ministered to numerous people through their prophetic and pastoral giftings. This might happen for an hour or more.

At the point when the moving of the Spirit began to lift, most preachers would have sent the people home.

Mom and Dad did not do that.

Dad would have the members all sit back down, and he would tell them, "We have been blessed by the moving of the Spirit of God today. But we never come here to church without hearing from God's written Word. So, I'm going to teach you from God's Word for five minutes, and then I will dismiss you."

And he would take off his watch, lay it on the edge of the pulpit, and would keep his eye on the time. He would give them a brief exhortation from God's Word, and then when the five minites were up, he dismissed them and sent them home. By doing so, he taught the people to build their lives NOT on the moving of the Spirit, NOR even on spiritual gifts--wonderful though they are--but to continually look to God's written Word as their source of instruction and strength.

Do you see the wisdom in this approach?

Are you beginning to see how the Goodwins were able to minister prophetically for over 50 years, and yet they never got off into the error and goofiness that the "New Prophetic Move" ministers did?

God never intended people to place their faith in someone's spiritual gift. He wants them to have faith in His written Word. The spiritual diet we are on, and that we feed to others, must be a diet of the meat of God's word. Then if, over and above our teaching ministry, the gifts manifest--fine. If not--fine.


We learn from the Apostles:

We must build our ministry on prayer and the ministry of the Word, giving people the solid meat of God's Word and letting the Gifts of the Spirit be the dessert.





Copyright 2006 Mel C. Montgomery. All rights reserved. Material may be copied and shared with others as long as it is done so in entirety, without charge, and attribution is given.