'You will stand against the whole land - the kings, priests, and people of Judah. They will fight you, but they will fail'.

It's 'one man against all odds'. But this one man against all is a false impression of the prophetic ministry, as even in the Old Testament the prophetic was often a team ministry.

SCHOOLS OF PROPHETS.

Even in the Old Testament there were prophetic teams. There were 'schools of prophets' at Jericho, Gilgal, Ramah, Bethel, and Gibeah. Also, at the rebuilding of the temple there were at least two prophets ministering the word of the Lord to the people, encouraging them to complete the rebuilding of the Lords house:

Ezra 5:1
'At that time the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem'.

Saul encounted a 'band of prophets'; the school of prophets in Gibeah, in 1 Samuel 10:9-12. The result was that the prophetic anointing overflowed to Saul and he joined in the fun and prophesied with the prophets!

So it is quite clear from the Bible itself, that even in the Old Testament the prophetic ministry was often a team effort.

ELIJAH.

'Ah', you say, 'What about Elijah; now he was a loner'. We all love Elijah, what a great man of boldness; confronting the kingdom of darkness head on! One prophet of the Lord against all of the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18. How can you not love the way he mocked the prophets of Baal and Baal himself? But wait a moment....didn't Elijah get messed up after that confrontation because he believed the lie of the enemy that he was 'alone'? Elijah fled in fear to the cave at Horeb where he suffered what we would call a 'spiritual meltdown'. Twice in 1 Kings 19 Elijah said 'I am the only one left', in verses 10 and 14. This was a lie, as the Lord had preserved 7,000 other faithful men of God, verse 18.

I'd like to say this; we're not called to be like any of the Old Testament prophets. Our template, our model, our perfect standard of a New Testament prophetic person, is Jesus. Jesus was a team player; other than His quiet time prayer life he did everything with a team of people around him (the 12 disciples). As prophetic people we need a community of believers. Without them we will never become all that the Lord wants us to be, and we can so easily fall into the traps of the enemy, as Elijah did, without faithful brothers and sisters around us speaking into our lives, and sharing their hearts and wisdom with us.

Let's choose not to fall into the enemys trap as Elijah did, let's choose the way of Jesus and be a team player.

THE NEW TESTAMENT PROPHETIC TEAM.

It's very clear in the New Testament that the prophet, and the prophetic ministry, are called to be a part of a team. The Apostle Paul wrote most extensively about the prophetic ministry. In his letters he uses the word 'prophet' in the singular only twice, and on both occassions he talks about our personal responsibility with the prophetic gift. He uses the word 'prophets', in the plural, twelve times. It seems that Paul wanted to put emphasis on the prophetic being released through a team, and not just one person:

1 Corinthians 14:24
'But if all of you are prophesying'.

1 Corinthians 14:29
'Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others evaluate what is said'.

It's pretty clear that Paul saw the prophetic working best in a team. He saw ministry within the church as a team effort as well, as he wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:27, and all of 1 Corinthians 12.

And how about Joel 2:28 (and Acts 2:17) which talk about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in these days?

'Your sons and daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions'.

If the Lord was just interested in speaking through a few prophets, why would He pour out His Spirit in such a way so that everyone could prophesy? It's for the young and old, the male and the female. We all have a part to play. It's a huge prophetic team; it's the prophetic church!

2. THERE IS SAFETY IN NUMBERS.

When I started the VCF prophetic group, a lot of people thought that I was crazy! They thought that I would be verbally beaten to a pulp by the prophetic people, and that I could only get hurt and wounded! Infact, the opposite has been true. There is so much of God's love in the group, and so many new and deeper relationships have been formed in the group that it has been a great blessing to me personally.

THE RELATIONAL PROPHETIC TEAM.

Who would have thought that the Lord would bring so many different churches together, deepening relationships and building unity through the prophetic people? In theory we're the least relational people within the church, as we're generally introverted, and we can find small talk and deep relationships difficult. Only the Lord could have done this! This is prophetic in a sense, as our coming together in unity is symbolic of the greater unity that is going to be released across the whole Valley in the coming days! May it come soon Lord Jesus!

WEIGHING WORDS.

Why is there safety in numbers in the prophetic ministry? One of the reasons is because when we come together we can weigh one anothers words:

1 Corinthians 14:32
'Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others evaluate what is said'.

I remember one prophetic group meeting when we had some new people come and join us. When we had a time to exercise our gifts, this new couple gave some strange words. Right away, a number of us had a bad feeling about the words. We could tell that they were not from the Lord. Being able to discern what is from the Lord and what is not from Him really helps us in the prophetic. The false words that were given could do no further harm, as we 'threw them out'. We've found that this use of the gift of discernment encourages us to take more risks as a group. We know that if we do miss it with a word, then the word is unlikely to do any damage as we can deal with it immediately in a loving and constructive way.

DISCERNMENT.

This gift of discernment really is something that our group excels at. It's all about being able to recognize the Lords voice.

John 10:4
'His sheep know his voice'

We just 'know in our knower' whether something is, or is not, the voice of the Lord. Sometimes we just have a feeling, we have a good or a bad feeling about a prophecy, or we have peace or we don't have peace about the word. This inner sense, this gift of discernment isn't just for us within the prophetic group. It's something that we can use in our churches as well. If someone is prophesying and we have a bad feeling about it, we should tell the leadership. We don't have to say much, but it might confirm what the leader is already thinking, and it might lead to the word being weighed more carefully. In the same way, if we have a good feeling about the word let's use that as a form of confirmation that this word is from the Lord.

CHARACTER BUILDING.

When our group gathers, there is always a lot of character building happening as well. I love Proverbs 27:17

'As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend'.

What we have found is that if you're going through some kind of test, or some kind of refining, then someone in this group has already been there. The wisdom that comes through others really helps us understand what the Lord is looking for in our lives. It's such a blessing when we realize that we're not alone in what we're going through.

STAYING SHARP IN THE GIFT.

We also keep each other sharp in the gift of prophecy. My former pastor, Ray Bale, used to say that 'It's 90% impartation'. You can't study to be a prophet, and you can't read a book to receive the gift of prophecy. You need the anointing of the Holy Spirit. If you hang around prophetic people, the prophetic anointing just seems to rub off on you, and you can find yourself moving in the gift of prophecy. We have a number of people in our group whose main calling isn't in the prophetic, but in the pastoral ministry, and they had never moved in prophecy before. Since joining the group, the anoniting has rubbed off them and they find themselves moving in the prophetic. What is really beautiful is that they move prophetically whilst still carrying a soft, gentle, and caring heart of a shepherd. They are 'pastorally prophetic', or is that 'prophetically pastoral'?

3. A TEAM BRINGS A FULLER PICTURE OF WHAT THE LORD IS SAYING.

Here's an awesome verse about the prophetic team:

Amos 3:7
'Surely the Lord does nothing without first revealing it to His servants the prophets' (prophets, plural).

The Lord is talking to Amos about revealing His plan not to just one prophet, but to a number of prophets. To a team of prophets. God never reveals His whole plan to one man alone. The Apostle Paul also shows this in 1 Corinthians 13:9 where he writes that 'we prophesy in part'.

It doesn't matter how anointed you are, you will only ever get a piece of the revelatory pie. If it wasn't this way, we wouldn't need one another. As we come together as a group to seek the Lord, we get to see how each one brings a piece of the puzzle. Alone our prophetic word might not seem like much, but when we see it against the back drop of the other words that are coming from within the group our piece makes sense to us.

Often we can see how one word builds upon another. Once when we were prophesying over the First Peoples of Canada, someone gave a very simple word saying that they had seen 'a banquet'. This small word released further prophetic words, and was the foundation of the other words that were spoken. If that first small word hadn't been faithfully given, we would have been at a loss as to what the Lord wanted to say.

We have also found that we can work as a team when we interpret dreams and visions. As we discuss the vision or dream, we often find that we will each have only a part of the interpretation. 1 Corinthians 13:9 says that 'We KNOW in part, and we prophesy in part'. We really do need one another's knowledge and revelation.

TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE.

Sometimes I wonder whether the church has been ripped off when it comes to the prophetic, as often a church will invite one prophet to come and minister to them. When this happens, we loose the greater blessing that comes through a prophetic team.

Ecclesiastes 4:9
'Two people are better than one, for they can help each other suceed'.

Recently, I went to minister at a church in Ashton Creek. I didn't go there on my own, I went with a fellow prophetic person, Jake. There was a blessing released through us together, that was greater than that which we would have been able to release individually. We weighed one anothers words before we released them, and we saw that there was a greater accuracy and level of revelation when we prophesied as a team.

What is better than one prophet? Two prophets are better than one, and three prophets are better than two. What is better than two or three prophets? A pastor and a prophet, or an evangelist and a prophet, or a teacher and a prophet, or an apostle and a prophet! We need to learn to be team players not just with other prophetic people, but with the other five fold ministries as well, Ephesians 4.

IN CONCLUSION.

A prophetic team is a powerful thing. It's clearly biblical for prophetic people to work in a prophetic team, and to work in tandem with other ministries. There's safety when we work as a team, as we can weigh one anothers words, and keep each other sharp in the gift. We can bring all of our revelation together and see the wonderful tapestry and colour of all that the Lord wants to do in this days. Let's choose to be a team player!

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