Fight well with your prophetic word as a weapon!

In 1 Timothy the apostle Paul writes to Timothy,

“This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck…” (1 Timothy 1:18-19)

It is so important to grasp that the prophecies given by God concerning you are a weapon! That is as many prophecies concerning your call aren’t predetermined but you have to fight for their fulfilment. 

There are many unconditional prophecies. But many prophecies concerning us are dependent on our obedience in following Jesus. This obedience doesn’t demand perfection but it demands a heart that wants to submit to God and His ways. Also, it demands a heart that loves God’s presence, as it is only when we walk in God’s presence that everything God spoke concerning us will be fulfilled. And yet His promises are Yes and Amen the moment He speaks to us about them. That’s why, often the first promise God gives to us is a promise of His promise!

In Genesis 22 Abraham is about to sacrifice his son Isaac, according to God’s command.

"Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: 'By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.'"  (Genesis 22:16-18)

Many Christians don’t understand this principle of God testing and confirming our faith. First, God promises us something, and then He tests our faithfulness to His promise. Many Christians lose their call because they can’t withstand the time of testing.

And to withstand the time of testing we need to trust in God’s promises for us. And that means one day we will need to fight for those promises.

Personally, I have experienced that proclaiming my personal prophecies when under oppression or spiritual resistance from the enemy often clears the spiritual atmosphere around me, so that I can continue on the journey God has promised for me. But also, these prophecies protect me so that I can keep my faith and good conscience. If God has promised it to me, I don’t have to take it through manipulation or force.

That’s so important especially in leadership. Many Christian leaders suffer shipwreck because rather than hearing from God and trusting the word spoken over their lives by God they begin to use human means of encouraging and organising people. Often they get frustrated when the vision or the goal God has set before them isn’t being realised, and begin to manipulate people, so that they would reach their goal. Instead, God is asking us to trust in His promises, so that we wouldn’t lose our good conscience through manipulation or any unethical means.

All that is not automatic, as always, there is a tension between what we have been promised and what we perceive to be reality. And that's what faith is for—to take us to the place of fulfilment. Only through the fight of learning to rest on your prophetic promise by faith will your vision ever become a reality. That is because only when we learn to walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit—which means resting in the power and presence of God—can every prophetic word spoken over your life ever become a reality. And getting to that point takes long-term consistent application of faith.

In fact, we only begin to construct that prophetic reality God has promised to us as we put our trust on the foundation of His promises. That’s how His promises begin to take shape in our lives. But often that takes years. For Joseph in Egypt, it took 13 years of slavery and imprisonment before the prophetic dream God had shown him became a reality. But in the meantime it protected his integrity and purity. With David it also took years. But in the meantime the prophetic promise protected his integrity.

Without fighting a battle with your prophetic word through prayer and action it won’t ever become a reality. And that’s why it’s so vital to be 100% sure that the words you are trusting in are actually from God! Only God’s specific promises for you are worth trusting in. And you can’t claim a specific prophetic promise given to someone else, as trusting in that will only lead to destruction and failure.

It is vital to periodically sift through all prophecies spoken over your life prayerfully to ensure that they are from God, and keep only what you know is 100% from God. For example, I know women who still believe, many years after the man they thought was promised to them by God got married with someone else, that this man was and is meant to marry them. So they remain single, believing that the man will one day divorce, and then they will be able to marry that man—destroying their lives in the process of waiting for the fulfilment of a false prophetic word.

Remember, it is your responsibility to sift through every prophetic word given to you prayerfully. Don’t blame God if a false prophetic word spoken over your life won’t ever become a reality. Don’t blame God if a prophecy you “claimed by faith” won’t ever become a reality. But you have the full right to go to the throne of God to ask for the fulfilment of a prophetic word God gave to you. And you have the full right to take the prophetic word given to you by God and clear your way through demonic opposition by using that word as a weapon!