Down Payment

Some of you reading this are, or will be soon, under a prophetic calling. There is simply too much divine business at hand that my prophetic gift should be isolated; I’m not equipped to handle this alone.

Forget all the pretenders; they are not at all like us. We are not some rarefied super-elect chosen, but we know of a certainty that heart-led religion is the path to God’s favor, and we also know that not many folks out there are doing it. Most of those claiming some kind of gift of the Spirit for prophecy (and related “charismatic” manifestations) do not grasp the heart-led faith taken for granted in the Bible. Yes, there are folks out there who might do this using a different terminology, so it’s not that exclusive, but chances are the people who get publicity for their prophetic pronouncements are not heart-led.

I was hesitant at first when I heard about the slaughter in Florida last night. Surely you could predict what various talking heads will make of it. Every social and political agenda will crawl out from under the rocks to stake their claim on the incident. We are not a part of them and I don’t pretend to make any kind of interpretive analysis about our business here based on that messy scene. Rather, I want you to see how prophecy works in the heart.

Naturally, there is a context of prophetic messages I’ve already offered here. I’ve done what I could to stir that gift in some of you. Now we have a concrete example to work from, so take this as a lesson in the heart-led prophets’ academy.

When I first started seeing stories about this mass murder, something inside my heart went “click” — something fell into place. I would go so far as to say it felt like an annoying hole was plugged. So right away I began praying and searching my heart, bouncing questions off of my convictions, trying to find out what made this seem like some kind of satisfaction. Some things I managed to discard immediately: this isn’t about gays, nor guns, nor Floridians and their particular sins. And you’d have to be stupid to imagine I’m pleased with bloodshed. So I kept bouncing things off of this signal in my soul, trying to identify why it offered a sense of vindication.

Oddly, the first hint was that it was connected to economics. Oh my, another question to explore. Everything fell dead until I ran across the thread of recent activity and commentary warning that the establishment is frantically trying to hide the looming economic collapse. But there was something still missing that links that to the murders. On the one hand, something like that messy scene will serve as a handy distraction, given all the posturing you’ll hear in the news starting today. But that’s not exactly it. And I’m still not quite sure, but I’m willing to bet some of you can see it better.

What I do know is that this event signals the beginning of something, a sort of down payment on previous prophetic warnings. Not in some cerebral master plan sort of thing, but as a signal that God has set something loose. We aren’t going to figure out most of it intellectually, but we are supposed to pay attention to what we can discern from our hearts. And part of the prophetic discernment means sitting down to mull it over in prayer before sharing it. Something has shifted morally and there’s no turning back. If you invest more effort in heart-led discernment from here on out, you’ll experience more of those moments I describe when something goes “click” inside your soul.

What you do about it is entirely a matter of your own sense of calling. I can’t offer anything pragmatic, no specific call to do this or that. Instead, this is exceedingly important in our development of faith teaching. We need to start sharing about how faith works in the heart, and how to read the fingerprints of God in our world. It may not matter to all of you, but some of you will discover that my mention of these things kindles a spark of recognition.

Our community of faith needs more faith activity, more heart noise, more lives driven to fulfill a divine purpose for our Lord’s glory. We need to reclaim the message of spiritual gifts from generations of perversion and abuse that offered little real blessing to people of faith.