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October 8, 1997
I love the prophetic movement of God and my sincere thanks to all those who execute in honor and integrity their callings in the prophetic office.
I submit the following thoughts as one who believes in prophetic ministry and knows it is the Lord's desire to raise up a company of prophets who will declare His voice on the earth and reveal His heart, will and mind.
I also feel responsible to share what I feel the Lord is saying to cause us to be more sobered and moved to greater areas of purity in motives and attitudes as those called of the Lord to a ministry of such potential for blessing and equal potential for harm.
I have given my life to the prophetic ministry for the past 20 years and am under authority to many in this area. I have felt under great constraint of the Holy Spirit to try to discern His movings and dealings with me regarding something He seems to be saying about His prophets.
I don't pretend to understand it all; I simply want to share what I felt the Lord saying in order to prepare us for what lies ahead.
It is true that the Lord does nothing without first revealing it to His servants, the prophets. I know, however, that He is saying something now about a new requirement coming from His heart to His prophets. He needs a voice lifted up in the earth that will not be tainted, mixed, compromised or polluted with our own agendas, desires, imaginations, emotions or wills.
The days that lie ahead of us require true prophetic voices through which He may declare His heart and purposes. Oh, may we hear His heart and purify ours afresh, in Jesus' name, to be as the 'holy prophets of old' in speaking the Word of the Lord in this hour in which we live.
During the past few days, the Lord has put on me the sense of a revelation I believe He desires to release on the earth. I have been trying, as best as I am able, to perceive what He is saying.
Over the past few months (years, actually), my heart has been in despair over the prophetic ministry as we know it. It was birthed in foundational restoration but seems to have deteriorated (in some) into something "glamorous" or a "calling card" for those who want to make a name for themselves.
I have seen the striving of many to "be" prophetic and to try to come up with a word from the Lord to gain position or prominence and prophesy something that, in fact, the Lord hasn't spoken at all.
Over the past couple of years, while having ministered the word of the Lord to multiplied hundreds of people and having mentored others in the prophetic ministry, I have found myself, in my heart, wanting to shrink back from prophesying, not because I believe it is invalid; I believe it is very necessary - rather because of something I sense in our hearts that concerns the Lord.
I have been both blessed by peoples' responses to the prophetic word of the Lord, and I have become discouraged by the same. That response being that some seem to want "a word" after their own heart's desire more than they want "the Lord's word and Him Who is the Word."
This concerns me for what is supposed to be a ministry initiated by the Lord seems reduced to something kin to fortune telling or divining and places the prophet in a very difficult place to minister a pure word of the Lord.
I realize these are strong statements, but I am trying to express my own struggles in desiring to administer this office in purity based on the will of God and not the will of people.
I felt the Lord said to me that the season surrounding the Day of Atonement, 1997, was going to mark a significant season of change for the prophetic ministry on the earth. I sensed He was saying He is sending a new thing to His prophets. He is coming not merely to impart, but rather, "to implant anew the 'seed of the holy prophets of old' in the hearts of His prophetic servants on the earth."
I felt the Lord say that I (and others) should enter into intercessory repentance before Him for the sins of the prophetic ministry of misuse and abuse on the earth. Many have sinned against the Lord and His dear church in the way they have managed or mismanaged their prophetic gift or office.
I sensed the Lord say that this season marks an outpouring and deeper anointing for the prophets, but He is also requiring a greater accountability from those who serve Him in this ministry.
I sensed Him saying that those who fail or refuse to make the shift HE is calling for at this time will be those held responsible for the spirit of false prophesy that continues on the earth and in the church. (II Pet. 2:1)
I sensed Him saying that deadly and deceiving false prophesy would be the result of those who continue to prophesy words out of their own imagination when, in fact, the Lord has not spoken. (Jer:29:9; 23:21)
I have been pressed by the scripture in Jeremiah 23:22 which says: "But if they had stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people, and would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds."
The Lord wants prophets who are in relationship with Him in such a way that we go only when He says "Go!" and speak only when He says "Speak!" in order to continually turn the hearts of men and women to Himself.
The prophets belong to the Lord and to His people. They are like the priests of old; the Lord is their inheritance, but they serve the people of God. They commit to speak His Word and to represent Him to the people in truth and integrity.
I felt the Lord direct me to a study of the sins of the prophets in the Old and New Testaments. I am convinced they are the same sins of the prophets today. Nothing but the names and dates have changed. Some are prophesying out of their own imagination; some are prophesying for gain and reputation; some are wanting to be seen and heard in the land and known as those through whom the word of the Lord comes.
In this study I also cataloged the sins of the people who incited such behavior from the prophets. Jeremiah 5:31: "The prophets prophesy falsely (of their own emotions, mind, will and imagination), and the priests rule on their (own) authority; AND MY PEOPLE LOVE IT SO! But what will you do at the end of it?" (Jer. 5:13a, Jer. 5:31, Jer. 14:14, Jer. 25:14, Jer. 23:16, Jer. 23:21, Lam. 2:14, Ezek. 13:2.3, Ezek. 2:25, 28)
I have felt both the mercy and indignation of the Lord for He is very jealous for His prophets. Judgment must begin first, at the house of God, and even more so for those who are called to represent the Lord by speaking His word.
I have felt the fear of the Lord in a way I have never before. I have felt the nearness of the Lord as He said He would come and visit His prophets in this season surrounding the Day of Atonement, 1997, and do this thing of implanting within us the "seed of the holy prophets of old."
I have sensed what His coming will include and it has terrified me. His coming to those who are not walking in integrity and honor in the prophetic office, will be much more terrible than we have imagined.
"But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like a fullers' soap. And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness." Malachi 3:2-3
May those of us who have received this entrustment from the Lord to be His spokesmen in the earth "...go deeply into the rock (Jesus) and hide ourselves in the dust (humility) from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty. For the arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride o f men humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day," (Isaiah 2: 10-11)
May we hear and discern what the Lord is saying and make the shift of heart He is speaking to us regarding the execution of this, His calling and choosing on our lives.
Submitted in the fear of the Lord,
Carolyn Wies
Comments from the Lord to Pam Clark