SHERRI COLVIN

We are often told not to trust our thoughts, not to listen to our feelings because both of them can be liars.  And that’s true – they can be liars.  But they can also be accurate.  Simply put, so many of us have completely shut down our ability to hear, sense, see and give a voice to the still, small voice within, out of fear of being false.  We see it as coming from an unreliable source, we see ourselves as that unreliable source. So we ignore, divert and cut off the prophetic flow from our lives.

Stop it!

It’s time to start putting some trust in what God trusts.  He trusts YOU. He gives you the insight into lives and situations, now you need to trust yourself to minister the answer.  Will you get it wrong at times? Yes.  But you will touch more lives by stepping out and trying than you ever would by staying silent.  I’ve been training people in prophetic ministry for many years and the most important, number one thing you need in prophetic ministry isn’t an accurate word – I know it sounds like I’m embarking on heresy, but hang on…

The single most important thing needed in prophetic ministry is love.

“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 The Message

Did you catch that?  If you give a word with power and reveal mysteries – many see success in the prophetic as bringing words that are powerful, confirming, and revealing mysteries.    But without love those incredible prophetic words equal nothing.

I feel we’ve been fascinated with the wrong thing.  We’re impressed when someone brings a prophetic word full of details and information that is accurate – and that IS amazing. But are we as impressed with simply sensing God’s heart of compassion for someone hurting and then going and ministering His love to them?  Without a trace of human eloquence or angelic ecstasy, just us pouring out His love on another.  I can tell you the times my ministry has had the most impact weren’t the times I called out a name or gave words of knowledge, or said things that only the recipient would know.  The moments I had the greatest impact were the moments that love was front and center.  If love is the biggest thing you carry, you could say “fiddlesticks” and people would be drawn in to the Father – it’s not really about what we say, it’s about carrying something bigger than a word.

If we were honest, most times that we have a sense about someone we tend to ignore it, why?  Because “it’s probably just me”.  But let’s not ignore our thoughts, feelings, and senses anymore.  Let’s trust that He can use them for good.  So go ahead and speak that word of encouragement to your grocery cashier, do look that busy, sleep deprived, stay-home mom in the eyes and tell her how important she is in shaping a generation of world changers—she’s not forgotten, cry with the friend whose marriage just ended and remind her, with God this isn’t how her story ends.

Entertain the thoughts He brings, lean into the feelings He gives, press into the sense He imparts and remember, He trusts you.