When the Prophetic is formed in YOU

Father allows us to go thru difficult experiences to develop understanding; to find answers to grasp the times and the seasons with wisdom.  As I age I see the tapestry, the patterns that create depth of understanding we are destined to develop if we will just listen to Him.

Many people come up thru hard times. Do not despise the hard times you have had.  It has set you a place where when others come to with that situation, you can grasp where they are in the moment.  It's a gift God gives when he redeems you from the pit. Think of the depth of understanding Daniel had after the lion's den.  Look at the place of authority the 3 Hebrew children were given after they emerged from the fiery furnace.  Look at the depth of Jeremiah after the pit experience.  God allows experience to form us for the prophetic purpose you carry.

Don't ever let difficult times convince you that you are unqualified, unspiritual or passed over by God.  NO, you were being prepared for such a time as this.  Speak with confidence of the goodness of God.  Speak with authority.  Nothing happens without redemption for HIS purposes as we live in the Love of God and according to His purposes in our calling.

I look at my life and recognize the hard situations that have prepared me to minister to people who are facing just such a difficult time.  That is what forms an Issachar anointing to understand the times and seasons.  It's the depths of life hammered out on the anvil of experience that amplifies the oracles of God.  These stroke of the hammer on life's anvil that have made me who I am as a Prophet.

• Orphaned at 14 years old - I know what it means to find new family
• Worked a farm to learn persistence; to know crop failure is not permanent.
• Saw failure and success in my family helping me know nothing is perfect
• Have had periods of poverty that gives me understanding of what poor means
• Personal Marriage Problems gives me insight into marriage solutions for others
• Trading in the markets for losses and gains forced me to learn economics well
• Comprises with addictions that showed me that Life without Jesus has no future.
• Getting saved in my 30s resulted a zeal for truth like the Apostle Paul
• Close calls in my health that gives me confidence in the healing power of God
• Discovering the Plumb-line of God in my life that reminds me constantly how far I am from it.
• Knowing the accuracy of the Word of God gives me confidence in HIM without doubts
• Dealing with failure yet hearing the promises of God in my ear and seeing it come to pass.
• Knowing how to abase and abound without fear of the future.
• Living in many countries taught me to accept and understand cultures
• Executive of several large organizations and forming others from nothing developed courage
• Learning to lean on God's wisdom in my life in finance.  Living simply, a fasted lifestyle.
• Learning to always take the low end of the table and allow God to exalt me as HE will.
• Knowing when to cut off some relationships and build on others.

All these and many more developed a Biblical world view, a plum-line of God's truth and a level of understanding that has created the courage to speak into situations and cultures with a sense that God's grace has created a specific prophetic word that flows out of the heart of God.

When considering these things, the Prophet Amos (who also worked in agriculture) is a type that I find myself agreeing with prophetically.

^{Amos 7:7-9}

 God showed me this vision: My Master was standing beside a wall. In his hand he held a plumb line.

God said to me, “What do you see, Amos?”
I said, “A plumb line.”
Then my Master said, “Look what I’ve done. I’ve hung a plumb line in the midst of my people. I’ve spared them for the last time. This is it!
“Isaac’s sex-and-religion shrines will be smashed,
Israel’s unholy shrines will be knocked to pieces.

I know like Amos the prophet there are many times I speak in opposition to cultural and governmental error the has deviated far from the plumb-line of God's best for His people.  It's often unpopular.  It's often controversial.  It's often seen by many as angry.  Amos said as much:

Amos 5:10-15
People hate this kind of talk.
    Raw truth is never popular.
But here it is, bluntly spoken:
    Because you run roughshod over the poor
    and take the bread right out of their mouths,
You’re never going to move into
    the luxury homes you have built.
You’re never going to drink wine
    from the expensive vineyards you’ve planted.
I know precisely the extent of your violations,
    the enormity of your sins. Appalling!
You bully right-living people,
    taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.

Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic.
    Decent people throw up their hands.
Protest and rebuke are useless,
    a waste of breath.

Seek good and not evil—
    and live!
You talk about God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    being your best friend.
Well, live like it,
    and maybe it will happen.

Hate evil and love good,
    then work it out in the public square.
Maybe God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    will notice your remnant and be gracious.

It's time for the Prophets of God to speak boldly in the public square (yes that means politics), Speak boldly of God's Plumb-line (Cultural and Moral) and speak directly to the economics of our society (Justice). Without that voice, what hope do we have? I will follow my brother Prophet Amos' lead and speak loudly and clearly. There will be many that will stop up their ears. It's not popular to have an Amos speak when most of the people are intentionally blind and deaf.  They will enter into judgement of God. He will not be Mocked. He will remove the lampstands from their assembly. Quoting the words of Amos...thus saith "the God-of-the-Angel-Armies".