These articles are designed to help instruct new people who are just beginning to be used in spiritual gifts or in prophetic ministry.  In these posts I will share with you as frankly as I can, the principles of genuine prophetic ministry I've learned over the years.  

    I compare developing in prophetic ministry to the process a baby zebra goes through.

     When a baby zebra is born, there is a critical point that is reached 15 to 20 minutes after birth.  The foal falls from his mother's body, and hits the ground with a gloppy thud.  The jolt of the fall helps to contract the foal's lungs, and he gulps in his first breaths of air.

     He lays there, startled, for a minute or two.  Then he automatically begins to struggle to stand on his shaky legs.  And he opens his eyes, and starts to take in the scene around him.

     Here is the critical part:

     The second that foal is born, the mother zebra stands in such a way as to block his view with her body.  And for the next 15 to 20 minutes, she will continue moving again and again to keep blocking his view.  She has to. 

     No two zebras have the exact same pattern of stripes.  And in those first few minutes of life, whatever zebra's pattern imprints on the foal's mind is the one he will forever afterward believe to be his mother. 

     If another zebra mother's pattern imprints on the foal's mind, he will refuse to nurse from his mother--who has just given him birth--and he will go to the other zebra mother and will try to receive from her.  She knows he is not her foal, and will kick him away.

     Within hours or days he will die, because he does not know who his mother is.

     Principle Number One

      As with the zebra foal, so is it with new people coming up in prophetic ministry:

     Whatever you see on a regular basis in another prophet, will imprint on your spirit, and guide you for the rest of your life.

     Therefore:

     Be careful who you follow. 

     Be careful who you pattern yourself after.

     Be careful who you accept as a spiritual parent.

      God opened a wonderful door for my preparation in prophetic ministry.  He put me under Sister Goodwin's instruction for the last ten years of her life.  Her type of excellence in prophetic ministry is what was imprinted on my spirit, and I have been truly thankful to God that it was her pattern, and not that of some flakey so-so prophet.

     I realize though, that few will have a similar opportunity.  So allow me to share in these posts exactly what I would tell you, if we could sit together in my living room, as I sat with Sister Goodwin in her living room.

     She is not the only person I have learned from though.  Kenneth Hagin is a good source also.  I particularly recommend his books, "The Ministry Gifts,""The Ministry of a Prohpet," "The Gifts of the Holy Spirit," and "Following God's Path For Your Life."

     I have learned from, and recommend:

• All the materials of Lester Sumrall.
• "God's Generals" video series by Roberts Liardon.
• "True and False Prophets" by Don Basham.  Regretfully, I recommend avoiding almost everything else he wrote.
• Gordon Lindsay's biography of William Branham, and of John Alexander Dowie.  These books show how it is possible to start out in a genuine anointing, and end up in grave error later.
• The materials of Ed Dufresne.
• Joe Jordan's books, some of which are available through Billye Brim's website.  I especially recommend his book, "A Tribute to Spiritual Excellence" which is a biography of the Goodwins.  (This Joe Jordan is not the Joe Jordan on many internet searches that believes in UFO's).
• The movie, "Man of Faith," starring Robert Wagner, Fae Dunaway, and others.  The story of Healing Evangelist LeRoy Jenkins, produced by LeRoy Jenkins.  It is a "warts and all" biography.  It will show you the many mistakes some ministers make, and yet still operate in a genuine anointing.  (Study his life, but don't do what he did). 

     Drink in deeply the teachings on this site, and the above materials.  These are balanced, scriptural materials, written by seasoned individuals that will impart to you a sound understanding of spiritual gifting and genuine prophetic ministry.

Principle Number Two 

     The following instructions given to new recruits in Boot Camp demonstrate another important component of genuine prophetic ministry.  

     I was watching a TV documentary about new recruits being trained in an Army Boot Camp.  It was comical to watch, but it was no fun for the recruits.

     Here were these young men who looked like they were hardly old enough to shave.  They had never been away from home before, never faced this kind of discipline, and they were going through quite an ordeal.  Several drill sargeants came into the barracks, and each recruit stood at attention beside his bunk. 

     The drill sargeants were stomping all around, disapproving of everything in sight, getting up in each man's "personal space," nose to nose, and screaming orders and questions at the tops of their lungs.  The young recruits were spooked, ready to jump out of their skins, and wanting desperately to do whatever it took to satisfy these crazed drill sargents.

     The drill sargents repeatedly gave the same instruction:

       ''THERE ARE ONLY FOUR ACCEPTABLE ANSWERS TO ANY QUESTION I ASK YOU!

     THEY ARE:

     YES SIR!

     NO SIR!

     I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION SIR!

     AND

     NO.....EXCUSE....SIR!"

     Think on that last phrase:  "No excuse Sir!"  Do you know that is the perfect definition of repentence?  

     You come before God, no longer saying, "Well, she made me do it."  Or, "If he hadn't done this then I wouldn't have done that."  Or "You know what he did to me Lord, so I have every right to..."

     True repentence is when you finally say to God, "There is no excuse for my sin...there is no excuse for my trespass...there is no excuse for my wrong attitide..."  Instead, you simply say to Him:  "God...No excuse...I was wrong...please forgive me."

     God loves it when we repent.  He is quick and merciful to forgive us when we fail.

     Note what He said to us through the Prophet Isaiah:

     "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy:  I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit..."  Isa. 57:15.

     Notice in the first part of that Scripture it describes God as "the High and Lofty One."  It further says that He "inhabits eternity," and that He "dwell(s) in the high and holy place."  Notice who also dwells there too, "with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit."

     This tells us that one of the requirements to operate in prophetic ministry, to flow in strong gifts, or as Sister Goodwin termed it, to "minister in the Spirit," is to have a "contrite and humble spirit."

     Strong's Hebrew dictionary tells us that this Hebrew word "contrite" means:

      "Very much crushed, broken very small, hence as a substitition--that which is very small, poetic for dust."

     Webster's Dictionary defines "contrite" as:

     "Feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a sin or shortcoming."

     God loves all people, but He draws close to Himself in the High and Holy place those who are contrite and humble.  In other words, those who are quick to sincerely repent, saying basically, "No excuse God...just, please forgive me, I was wrong."  And those who also have a small opinion of themselves, and of their own abilities.

     Sister Goodwin   who mentored and prepared me, Kenneth Hagin, and others for prophetic ministry, exemplified these two qualites:  sincere repentence and humility.  Hearing her pray, was a beautiful experience.  I remember hearing her pray one time, "Father....We know not whether to come in, or to go out...We know not whether to stand up, or sit down...except You should tell us."  The humility expressed in that prayer, still brings tears to my eyes. 

     Her home was like the Holy of Holies of old--God's manifested presence was there every time I visited her.  She dwelled with Him, and He with her, because she kept their roles straight.  He was the High and Lofty One, and she was dust in comparison.  She was small in her own eyes, but served a great God.

     I have found in my own experience of being used by the Lord in many, many manifestations of the revelation and utterance gifts particularly: 

     The stronger the anointing in manifestation, the more humble and contrite my own heart has to be as the anointing is flowing through me.  The slightest amount of pride or any attempt to draw attention to self, grieves the Spirit and quenches the anointing almost instantly.

     To summarize Principle Number Two:

     As it was with the new recruits, so is it  with us in genuine prophetic ministry:

     When we offer God "no excuse," genuinely repenting and humbling ourselves before Him, He draws us deeper into the Holy Spirit and His anointing.

Copyright 2006  Mel C. Montgomery.  All rights reserved.  Material may be copied and shared with others as long as it is done so in entirety, without charge, and attribution is given.