Introduction

What do I mean by the prophetic? At the basic level, it means God speaking to you. It includes hearing his voice in your spirit, prophecies spoken over you, dreams, or visions from God. 

This article is about how to respond to God speaking to you. The correct response is crucial for the prophetic promise to happen. 

4 Responses to Prophetic Words

1. Providence

Providence is where God gives you a word and he says he’s sovereignly going to do it and you need to do nothing.

If he gives you a providential word, wait for him to do it. Some words only happen 100% by God and 0% by us. But in my experience, only a small percentage of prophetic words fall in this category.

Here is an example of a sovereign (providential) word in scripture.

Luke 1:26-31 (NLT) 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” 29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.

The angel of the Lord appeared to Mary, and he’s prophesying she was going to bear the Son of God in flesh form. The Holy Spirit’s going to make you pregnant. So let’s think about this. Mary received an amazing prophetic promise. But there is nothing she could do to make this happen. She can’t get pregnant on her own? She needed God to sovereignly make this happen. 

And so that is an example of where the Lord said he would do it and she had to wait on him. The only thing God needs from us in a providential word is our agreement. Mary gave her agreement when she said, “Be it unto me, according to your word.” In a providential word, he doesn’t force his will on us. If we don’t say yes to him, he won’t do it. 

Summary: This response is appropriate some times if it is a providential word that only God can do.

2. Passive

I think many Christians get ‘stuck’ thinking that their word is a providence word when it is not. So they do nothing, waiting on the providence of God. But it is not a providence word. In my experience, only a small percentage of prophetic words are providential. Most words require us to do something.

Passive is we do nothing but we are to be doing something.

The Israelites were about to go into their promised land, and they were actually looking at the land God had promised them. In Numbers 14, it tells the story of where 12 spies were sent out and they came back to give their reports. 10 spies gave a report that it would be too hard to conquer the land. They were afraid. 2 spies said it would be a challenge, but they should do it. The people believed the 10 spies, not the 2. Because they would not do their part in the promise, he wouldn’t let them go into the promised land. He said you are going to be walking in the wilderness for 40 years. He did not sovereignly give them the land. He had a part to play, but so did they. 

They died off, and their children eventually inherited the land. Why? They got scared. In their fear, they would not move forward. They became passive.

How many of us are seeing in our spirit the potential of the promise? Seeing is not enough. We have to move in and possess the promise. It’s time to put our feet on the land like Joshua. God is saying everywhere your foot treads, I will give to you. You have the word; you have the promise, but your foot has to tread. It is time to move.

We have to move the way he wants us to move. The Israelites were told to go into the promised land, but they were told how to do it step by step. This leads us to the third response to the prophetic.

Summary: This response is never appropriate. 

3. Presumption

Presumption is we think we know how to live out the word and we don’t ask God for direction.

The Israelites did this. They did not go into the promised land when God told them. This was written about above. Later, without God’s direction, they changed their minds and went into the promised land. It was a disaster because they didn’t inquire of God and didn’t do it his way. They presumed they knew how to do it.

Numbers 14:40-45 (NLT)Then they got up early the next morning and went to the top of the range of hills. “Let’s go,” they said. “We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to enter the land the LORD has promised us.” But Moses said, “Why are you now disobeying the LORD’s orders to return to the wilderness? It won’t work. Do not go up into the land now. You will only be crushed by your enemies because the LORD is not with you. When you face the Amalekites and Canaanites in battle, you will be slaughtered. The LORD will abandon you because you have abandoned the LORD.”But the people defiantly (KJV presumed) pushed ahead toward the hill country, even though neither Moses nor the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant left the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in those hills came down and attacked them and chased them back as far as Hormah.

We want to be careful and follow God’s instructions. Don’t presume we know how to do it. Move, but ask and obey as you move. Presumption is not inquiring and obeying God. It’s where God said yes, and you say no; it’s where God said stop or go and you did the opposite because you knew better or wanted something different. This is actually disobedience.

Summary: This response is never appropriate.

4. Partnership

Most prophecies and promises are not waiting on God to do it; they’re actually waiting on you to partner with him. God never gives us all the details up front when we partner with him. He usually just shows us the next step. We say yes, walk in faith, and listen closely to his voice continually. This is what partnership looks like with him. 

I want to encourage you to take these 3 steps: Say yes, walk in faith, and listen closely continually. It is time.

Matthew 11:12 (NLT) And from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it.

There’s a grace to pursue what God has promised us. This requires intention, because there are promises that God has spoken over your life that he wants to see fulfilled more than you do. 

James 1:22 (NLT) 22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

We need to be doers of the word and not just hearers only. This means there is a level of action of partnership that we need to do to show our faith in the Lord, to show and reveal our faith in his promises and move forward.

Let’s use Noah building the ark as an example of partnership.

Genesis 6:13-16 (NLT) 13 Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to make an end to all the people on the earth. They are the cause of very much trouble. See, I will destroy them as I destroy the earth. 14 Make a large boat of gopher wood for yourself. Build rooms in the boat. And cover it inside and out with tar. 15 This is how you are to make it: The boat is to be as long as 150 long steps, as wide as twenty-five long steps, and eight times taller than a man. 16 Make a window for the boat, that goes down a cubit from the roof. Put a door in the side of the boat. And make it with first, second, and third floors. 

Noah got the broad strokes of the word but not all the details to implement it. He had to make actual blueprints, get wood, get laborers, figure out how to store the animals, food, potable water, bathroom facilities, etc. He headed in the right direction and then believed that God would guide him or stop him if he was implementing the details wrong. You can trust that he will show you if you are doing it wrong. This is how partnership with God works.

If the Lord speaks to you and gives you clear directions, follow that one hundred percent. But a lot of the times, the Lord gives you a promise and then he’s watching to see how much in faith you’re going to step out to believe the promise and start partnering with it to the best of your ability so that the word of the Lord can be fulfilled.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT) 6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Summary: This response is the most common. It’s time to step out in partnership with him. It is called faith.