Studies In The Kingdom Of God

Vol 2: Chap 9: Make Room For The Prophetic Activity Of God

"And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins." Luke 5:37-38 (emphasis mine)

It is very important, as we embrace and pursue the prophetic activities of the Kingdom of God, to make room for it within our own individual lives and in the life and functions of our churches. This may seem like a fairly simple thing to do but anytime we embrace change, we embrace something that will require flexibility and adjustment. Sometimes these changes take little effort and adjustment on our part in order to implement them. But other changes, such as embracing and pursuing this prophetic activity of God, will require a greater level of flexibility, adjustment, and patience. This is because the operation of the Kingdom of God and its activities is completely different from the manner in which most of us have lived our lives since the day we were born.

We grew up being trained by our spiritual orientation (sin) and the society and culture in which we live (natural instead of spiritual) in order to approach our life and the world around us through the physical filters we call our five senses. These five senses allow us to contact and interact with the world around us in different ways. The information gathered by these physical senses is sent to our brain which then processes the information and forms conclusions based on this input. This sensual process is not exact but through practice and the course of time, we have become fairly adept at this continual information-gathering and decision-making.

The prophetic process for gathering information from the Kingdom of God is not a process where we can simply transfer our already-developed sensual process skills to this new spiritual process and expect to become adept at it quickly. In fact, the prophetic process for gathering information from the Kingdom of God is completely different from our sensual process. Just like the sensual process, the prophetic process is not an exact science. Competency and expertise in regard to its operation and exercise is acquired through a process of diligent pursuit, instruction, training, and trial and error over an extended period of time, just like the sensual process.

Not only is the prophetic process, itself, something that takes time to grow in and adjust to but most of our theological institutions, local church organizational structures, and religious affiliations (denominations) are not trained and organized in such a way as to administrate and manage these prophetic activities of the Kingdom operating in their midst. Therefore, understanding and accepting this will help us identify how we as individual believers, leaders in the local church, and organizational leaders can prepare ourselves to embrace, pursue, and make room for the prophetic in our midst.

Before we look at a scripture from Luke 5, it is important to understand some of the background of the passage. In this scripture, Jesus is addressing a group of Jewish religious leaders known as the Pharisees. To better understand what Jesus said to them and why He said it, I want to go back and trace the origin of the Pharisees to see how, when and why they were established and how they evolved as a group, over time.

The Pharisees, a religious sect of the Jews, trace their history back to the time of Ezra and the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, in approximately 450 BC. At that time, they referred to themselves as the "Nivdalim" or "those who had separated themselves from the filthiness of the heathen", and placed upon themselves specific vows and obligatory practices. This "separation" espoused by the "Nivdalim" was very sincere as a result of the spiritual revival that took place in Israel when God allowed them to return from exile to rebuild the temple. Over time, the "Nivdalim" evolved. Along this evolutionary journey, these individuals gradually strayed from the spirit of "separateness" brought about by revival, to engage in outward observances, practices, and appearances only.