Prayer as Prophecy

Did you know that prayer can be spoken as prophecy?  I didn't either until God told me earlier today.

If you've been following my blog for a while, you've probably noticed that I've written a few times about prayer and prophecy, sometimes individually and sometimes together.  Well, I'm going to add to that collection.

Another school year has gone by, and now I'm back at home.  My brother is finishing up his first year of college, and my parents are on their way up to Indiana now to pick him up later this week.  So it's just me and my grandma left in the house, which, even though one day isn't much to go by, has been great!  I usually don't spend a whole lot of time talking with my grandma because of the language barrier, but we worked through it with some broken Japanese on my part and some broken English on her part.  But that's not the only thing that I've gotten to enjoy since being home.  With a quiet, almost empty house, I was able to enjoy some time reading and praying.  In fact, I plan on continuing that prayer time after I finish typing.  Anyway, in the middle of reading, I couldn't stay focused on my reading because God was putting too much on my mind that He wanted me to pray for.  So I prayed then went back to my book, then got distracted again, so I prayed and went back to my book.  Eventually, I decided to just go on a prayer walk with my dog.

As I was praying, the Holy Spirit started speaking through me in a powerful way that I had never recognized or understood before.  I had felt that kind of authority in prayer before, but I had never been able to put a name to that kind of confident praying.  He had me praying for things I wouldn't normally think of to pray.  And He had me praying with such confidence and assurance of His promises that I knew that what He had me praying for would come true.  Then the Lord planted the thought of prophecy in my mind, and I understood.  The kind of strength I felt while praying earlier was the same feeling of authority that comes from prophecy and the understanding of visions.  Because the Holy Spirit is the One giving the prophecy or vision, the prophecy or vision can be trusted to be true and to be fulfilled.  In the same way, because the Holy Spirit is the One who prays for us, we can trust Him to fulfill our prayers because the Spirit only prays what the Lord wants and what He intends to fulfill.  When we pray authentic prayers guided by the Spirit, we are not merely expressing our desires; we are prophesying!  That's why Paul encourages the Corinthians to desire the gift of prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:1): he wants them to learn to be in such close contact with the Lord that His desires are deeply known to us so that we may speak them into being with His life-giving breath.  We are called to delight in the Lord so that we may want what He wants, and thus our desires, which are God's desires, would be fulfilled (Psalm 37:4).  And when we pray in the Spirit (Romans 8:26-27), we welcome and ask for the fulfillment of those desires.

This is also why God told Ezekiel to prophecy to the dry bones in the valley (Ezekiel 37).  Rather than pray that the bones would receive new life, Ezekiel was told to prophecy to the bones, implying a certain level of assurance that the words spoken will indeed become truth.

Maybe this doesn't change all that much, but it's still a cool thought.  When you're praying, instead of just rattling off a list of wants and needs and hopes and thanks (thanksgiving is essential), allow the Spirit to pray through you as if He is prophesying through you.  See what happens to your faith as a result, and what happens in actuality.