I was awakened to the call of ministry in 1995, but it was
2005 when my on-the-job-training began when I opened my printing/publishing
company in Cheltenham, MD. The Bible is
filled with men and women who declared God’s word and were used to bring people
out or to take them into something. But
it is not until you begin your own personal journey with God that your eyes
will be open to the many things they went through serving God.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love what I do and I love God and
God has definitely been good to me along my journey. But no amount of prophetic words could have
really prepared me for the price I had to pay to walk out the call on my life. When I think about David, Moses, Noah,
Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Elijah and Jesus; they all had times of solitude and
rejection. They all had seasons of being
off to the side and where they could not walk the path that others were
walking. Well that has been my life;
unbeknown to me that it came along with the preparation process.
My journey has been very fruitful, but it was also long. You can still live and grow in the winter
seasons in your life. You can still
produce when you are in the back side of the desert, because no matter what
season you are in, as long as God led you there, then He will cause you to
flourish. When I think about David from
the initial time he was anointed by Samuel to the events in his life that
caused him to run through the wilderness, I’m sure he had to be saying, “God I
didn’t sign up for this!” I know I have
said that several times. LOL! Or what
about Noah, who was instructed by God to build the ark and warn the people
because something was coming that, was not familiar to anyone at that
time. He was faithful to the task, and
the process in spite of being ridiculed and ostracized for years.
If you are called to the office of the prophet, God needs your
ear so you can hear Him above all the other noise in the kingdom. He also needs your heart, because this walk of
ministry will cost you and bring must rejection. Remember Jesus said that when people reject
you, they are actually rejecting the God in you and His message. If God has your heart, then He has you
because your heart is the innermost part of you. That is where God speaks and you move. If He doesn’t have your heart, it will be
hard to withstand the journey and you will allow outside influence to dictate
your behavior and release what God isn’t speaking.
Your relationship with God is first and foremost the most
important value to a prophet. You carry
the mantle to root out, pull down, destroy, throw down, build and plant; well
none of that is a pretty picture. For me
God spoke, “Karen you will be the first to hit the hard places in people’s
lives. Nobody wants to be the first one
to disturb people’s un-surrendered walls.
That is what brings about the constant backing up that people will do to
you. This is why God needs your
heart. He speaks at every turn, which
has always kept me open to Him and His people.
Every prophet in the Bible had a different way of coming into
their assignment and all of them had different assignments to fulfill. It is the same today! God doesn’t give every prophet the same
vision. Our spiritual DNA isn’t the
same, from the standpoint of what God needs us to speak to the church. That is why we must be sensitive to keep
moving by the inward witness, like Israel moved when the cloud/fire moved. We can’t get so comfortable with our lives
and how we do things or who we are hanging out with that we are mad when it is
time to dismantle and move forward. God
is trying to get you somewhere. He never
called you to set up camp forever at one place.
The journey of the prophet will be one of making quick obedience to the
spirit of God. This is why He needs your
heart, because He is not going to keep rustling and tussling with you to move
when He ready to move or send you. One
of the biggest lessons God will teach you is to stay in sync with Him. No man can teach you that. This will be done when you are sensitive to
Holy Spirit. Always be where God is and
not where He was.
One last thing, 2 Chronicles 34:1-5 tells us that when Josiah
began to rule as king, it was in his eighth year that he sought God and in his
twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from their molten images and
idols. The life of a prophet will also require
us to go to the church and begin to tear down things that the church has
established that was never God. Along
our journey, we do not realize that things creep into our houses (our temples
and church services), and become idols and images before God that must be
removed. If God sends a prophet to do this,
it is because the people have not taken heed or cannot hear God’s voice
concerning the matter. Again, do you see
why God needs your heart and ear?
When I look back I can see that my journey was long and I
paid a price for the call on my life. I
did not get to do what I wanted to do. I
didn’t have the luxury like others with a lot of hanging out, but I still had
fun. When I was in the journey, I never
felt deprived. I enjoyed spending time
with God. I enjoyed how God trained me
and He graced me for this solo journey, while He took care of me like I was His
daughter and queen. I enjoyed life, but
maybe not on the same caliber as others when I hear there stories. If you take care of God’s business and stay
in sync with Him; God will bless you beyond your desires. The Bible says, “Though thy beginning was
small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.” (Job 8:7) --- Enjoy God and enjoy the journey…the
reward will far outweigh the sacrifice.
Check out Books by Karen
