The Life of a Prophet
The life of a prophet is a stripping away process. Everything that is of himself will one day have to face the fiery furnace.
Oftentimes one will see that they are not received in the regular church setting. Their message may not be received, but they are called to give it anyway. They may find that they are not readily received, even in their own household.
“But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house,“ Mark 6:4.
It is a lonely walk, and often you will want to hide from what He has called you to do. And that does not work either, because God wants you to be bold and to be His vessel.
Your strength does not come from yourself or your personality, but from the LORD himself.
One finds soon enough that the life of a prophet is a hard, disciplined one. However, one also finds that their relationship with the LORD Himself is worth more than fine gold or silver.
Your heart must be that of the Father himself. You must weep when He weeps, and have joy over what He has joy in. It is not your joy or sorrow, but you experience the heart of God in and through these things.
God will share His secrets with you. You will intercede for others and then speak it unto the earth. You will learn to live in a fiery furnace. And when you think that the process is over, then once again the heat is turned up, and the dross comes to the surface.
You will spend time in the cave, and you will spend time in the wilderness; each has their purpose. Then you will be called out to speak among the brethren but the time will come when the process will continue yet again.
You may question your life many times of its purpose, but you will find that in knowing Him and being His servant has a purpose that far outweighs what you may have thought your purpose was before.
It may take years and years before you see the development of what He had called you to do. Others are like Jeremiah in that they were called at birth. Then you look back and see that all the hardships, rejections, and trials were for your preparation. They served their purpose in emptying you of yourself.
You may be gifted in speaking, or you may be the type of person that has difficulty in standing up in front of a crowd. You will find that He uses the weak things of this world to shame the wise. And yet if you are weak or seemingly frail in the eyes of the world, He will cause you to rise up and to be strong in Him.
If you are a confident and a bold person, He will strip you of this, and cause you see that it is not of your own flesh, but of His Spirit that He will use you.
You may be brought to the place where you lose your regular source of income that you have had for years. An in spite of this, you will find that He alone will take care of you through various means through the saints, or through some other avenues.
This is a difficult place to be in, especially if you have a family and they need your help and support. They may even wonder why you are doing what you are doing.
God has a perfect plan for each of us. Spend time in prayer so that you will know what that plan is. It may be in delivering His word in a particular church or to a group of people. You may be called to prophetic ministry, or you may be called to prophetic office. Each has their place and purpose, but there is a difference in each of them.
So if you want to be a prophet know that He will strip you of all things. It is not a glamorous position, but it is a face-to-face position with the LORD himself. And this will be the joy of your life in knowing Him, and having this relationship with Him.
Your prayer language will become something of great importance, and you will see that without this, you may dry up and your life will not have the purpose or strength that you will need.
Your time spent in prayer will become one of the most important things to you. Be prepared to be molded by His Spirit and one day He will bring you to that place where He can trust you with His words and secrets.
You will realize that your life is one of service to the body of Christ. You will represent the LORD himself through your life, and you will see that your dying to self is an on-going process in enabling you to be the vessel He needs for His people and to His church.
Selah,
~ Stephen Hanson
Stephen Hanson of In His Truth Ministries came to the LORD is a special way in 1975 and has prophesied regularly since. In these end-time birthing pangs we are reminded that judgment must first begin with the household of God. Will we be prepared and ready?
Great website and hoping that one day I can be used as a prophet and all my prayers answer
I have been a believer for 28 years, I have to be honest, I thought everyone who is a believer hears from God by the help of the Holy Spirit. I had been to many churches but always felt like the odd one. It would be disagreement with scripture teachings or the way people behaved saying it was the Holy Spirit. This went on for 25 years then God made known to me to listen to a particular minister and I loved everything he was teaching in the scriptures apart from one thing, “the gifts of the spirit” believing prophecy was no more. It’s only a little while now, and I asked God was I a prophet ?, and numbers 12:6 was brought to my attention. I feel like such a slow learner. Your post here is like mine exactly. Now what Lord ?.
Yes I really did enjoy reading it..thanks for sharing your testimony and God is great
Thank You and may God Continue to Bless You his Anointed. I am going through some things and really needed to read this.
Thank you! This truly depicts my life. It’s exactly true and has been my journey. Awesome for sharing because it’s a blessing to those who are being refined in the fiery furnace. Bless you
Amen, this is all true. It is a very lonely life, but Thamks be to God!
Blessings, & thanks for this post!
Stephen, I am adding some to the pages I have on http://www.thenewsong.org/ on the page about prophets I would like to put a link to you and use some of your stuff?
Yeeees. Sad but true.
Loved this so much! Straight from the heart of a prophet. A prophet is a living parable.
Hi Steven. Wondering if there is a way out of being a prophet. I don’t want to give up my ability to hearing from God, but I don’t want the trials it comes with. Can I still hear God, but get the trials eliminated? I love that I hear from God and would not give that up for anything. But the trials are killin’ me. Thanks.
So…in my experience it’s the trials we walk thru that keeps me hearing from God. So very very very hard. Numerous these past few years.
Great article gave some imsihht
Thank you.
This message was for me. Thank You Holy Spirit for writing through Stephen. I never desired to be a prophet but I’ve been told time and again that I am one. Lord knows this has been a journey and according to your message it will continue to be. It’s understandable. More of Him, less of me. I did lose my income because I was no longer able to walk the long distances my job required me to. Now I’m being upheld by God through family and friends and random one night jobs. Thank You Lord. God bless you Stephen.
ptl.it is a blessing to know that we are worthy that God love us that much to allow us to walk in his word and being a mouth peace for him, it hard but we will make it to the end if we get out of the God, way just let him be lord over you stop fighting it let him be the piolet you cant fly with out a piolet so just surrender and say lord your will not mine everything will fly smoothly when you hit those dark cloud just have to pray a lot more longer.be encourage and know that God love you he want you because you are ready stop fighting go slow let it take place peaceful enter his gate with praise .