Living A Prophetic Life
Living a prophetic life can be summed up in this phrase – hear God clearly, obey Him boldly, and reflect Him accurately.
Living a prophetic life isn’t just for certain people with a special gift. We are all called to have relationship with God and walk with Him on a daily basis. This is about a lifestyle – a daily focus of being tuned in to what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing.
Many believers desire to reflect God in their everyday lives, but this has to start with our heart. Proverbs 27:19 says, “As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.” To live a prophetic life we must know God within. And to know God, we must experience Him.
Experiencing God
Knowing God is about experience, not just knowledge. What we learn about God from scripture and through the whispers of the Holy Spirit must transform the inward and be applicable in our everyday lives.
Think about it this way: if we want to learn how to lay bricks, we might read some instructions or watch a tutorial. But until we physically begin to lay the bricks, we do not know how to lay bricks! Until we start to implement what we have learned, we only have head knowledge. And even when we apply the process, we are only beginning to learn.
“It is the education, the knowledge, that comes by experience, and experience simply means that something has been done in us by a certain process. He (the Lord) has become a part of our being, and not just something explained to our minds.” T. Austin-Sparks
We embark on the journey of knowing God as we experience Him. We begin to have a knowledge of Jesus Christ that brings life. Being His disciples requires us to always have the posture of learning and experiencing and growing spiritually. This is the prophetic life – knowing God better as the apostle Paul describes it in Ephesians 1:17-18.
The Testimony Of Jesus
You and I are called to live a life that ‘prophesies’ about Jesus in everything we do. We have the privilege of representing Christ – and our lives should testify about Him. Those that live a prophetic life are those that have paid the price to hear His voice, and then have the courage to do what He says.
But in addition to hearing and obeying, we are called to reflect His nature. We are created in God’s image, so we are responsible to represent God’s heartbeat.. Believers should have a recognisable identity, and our identity should reflect Jesus Christ.
A Life of Intention
The prophetic life is active and intentional. When we are living a prophetic life, we are living with an awareness of God and His presence. We are intentional about wanting to please Him. This means asking God to lead us, and then following Him and following His ways.
Proverbs 2:1-5 describes some of the ways we can have a prophetic life:
1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
A prophetic lifestyle requires a shift from focusing on what we want to hear, to focusing on what God is saying. And this happens primarily through our heart posture and an intentional change of focus.
