Hearing God: Prophecy, Instincts and the Word Together

Key takeaways

• Scripture comes first. Julian Lowe keeps most of his prophetic words private so that a church does not crave a word more than the Bible.
• Say only what you are sure of. Lowe set aside what he feared and told a worried wife that God had her husband. That sentence steadied her weeks later.
• Silence can be a sign of growth. A story about a three-year-old and Halloween candy shows why a quiet season may mean you are walking as a son or daughter.
• Revelation and wisdom belong together. Some things must be revealed by God, and others call for a good mentor.
• Practice stepping out gently. A word can be offered the way you would encourage a friend, with room for it to be tested.

A word about a husband and a motorcycle

Pastor Adam Mesa opened the conversation with a story from his own church. Julian Lowe of Oasis LA had spoken there the month before, while Mesa and his wife were renewing their vows. Afterward, Lowe gave a woman a word about her husband.

Lowe remembered sensing that she might lose her husband through a divorce. When he went to tell her, he felt that was not accurate, so he said only what he was sure of: God has your husband, and it is going to be okay.

The woman had argued with her husband that weekend because he had bought a motorcycle she thought was dangerous. A couple of weeks after Lowe preached, the husband was run over by a semi and trapped under it. The men recalled broken legs, a collapsed lung and a traumatic brain injury, and firefighters who had to lift the truck to slide him out. He is alive and recovering.

Mesa said the day before the accident she had told his wife she did not want her husband to ride. When it happened, the sentence Lowe had given her kept her steady, and she began praying in the Spirit.

Why Lowe keeps prophecy off the platform

Lowe said the Western church can be obsessed with prophecy without being equally devoted to the Word. He praised the Bible teaching culture at Mesa's church and explained why none of his words that weekend came from the stage. They were personal, offered right after he walked off.

His picture is simple. As Lowe put it, "I always view prophecy as a bucket of water, and the word is the well." The bucket is a gift, but the well is where a church lives.

Over the last eighteen months he had come to feel he was doing a disservice to pastors who did not move in that gift but were strong Bible teachers. He also warned his own people about chasing words: "if you only care about what God is saying, prophecy, but you don't care about what God said, scripture, you're going to find yourself getting some real inaccurate prophecy."

In his own church, which is reaching many new people, Lowe hardly ever prophesies, except in leadership and staff gatherings. He said most people have something in them that wants a king, and the more you operate in a visible gift, the more they want to make you that king. He feels freer in churches that already love the Bible, because he does not expect them to reject the word for the prophecy.

Instincts, sonship and God's silence

Lowe offered another way to think about hearing from God, drawn from Acts 2.

‘It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.

(Acts 2:17, WEB)

Sons, he said, are those who have the nature of their father, and nature shows up as instincts. His question was which is more valuable, prophetic words or prophetic instincts. His answer: "who God is, what he would want to say has made it into your instincts." Because the move from heaven to earth is so quick, you may not realize it was a word at all.

He illustrated this with a Halloween night when his son was about three and dressed as Spider-Man. At the first house the boy grabbed a handful of candy and walked off without a thank you, and his father corrected him. The second house went the same way. At the third house the neighbors thought it was cute, so his father told him again to wait outside and say thank you.

By the fourth house the boy was doing it right, and Lowe stopped saying anything. By the seventh house he was at the bottom of the driveway. He asked his listeners to imagine the boy saying that his dad did not talk to him like he used to. Lowe's reply: "My silence is actually affirmation that he's doing the right thing."

He did not dismiss the longing to hear God, and said you may need to press into his presence. But he suggested that a quiet season could also mean you are moving as a real son.

Revelation and good old-fashioned wisdom

Lowe said Peter was the biggest knucklehead of the disciples, yet Jesus told him only the Father could have revealed who Jesus was. In an age when so much can be learned from other people, he argued, some things still have to be revealed. He pointed to certain business plans as examples.

He also said he is looking for the balance between prophecy and wisdom. He does not want to spend five hours in a prayer closet over something Mesa could simply help him with. The table agreed they wanted both, without camping on the spooky side or on the wisdom side alone.

Harrison Domingue said he would not claim the gift of prophecy himself. Looking back, though, he sees ideas and opportunities he once dismissed as faith ideas, and now sees God's hand on them.

Stepping out gently

Domingue described watching Pastor Jim give extremely specific words. When Jim first prophesied over him, he spoke about Domingue's wife's childhood and described his kids, things Domingue said he had never told anyone.

Others at the table said the way to grow is to practice: offer what you sense, let it be tested, and treat it like encouraging a friend. It does not have to be a stage moment, and one of them called it one of the easiest ways to share Jesus with someone.

Sammy told of a time his team felt led to hold an event at UCLA after one at USC. It was summer, the campus was quiet, and the five of them prayed for God to highlight the right person. Walking out past the Bruin Bear, Sammy struck up a conversation with a student who said life is about seeing God move. A friend in the car told him the student was Jonathan Franklin, the lead running back in the nation.

Franklin personally called seven or eight campus ministries. The event fell on the night of a big game, yet several hundred students packed the ballroom. After rushing for about 200 yards in a two-point loss, Franklin phoned in from the locker room and preached the gospel over speakerphone.

A word Mesa misread

Mesa told about Mary Ellen Strong, a woman in her nineties who had become a spiritual mother to his father. He described her as the first Black corporate marketing executive in America, and as very prophetic. After a Wednesday night service, she stopped him at his car and said the Lord had a word: "you will not find a girlfriend or a wife until you stop looking for a girlfriend or a wife."

He thought it was the silliest thing he had heard and wrote it off. For about nine months nothing changed. Then his dad suggested he visit a pastor friend in Hawaii who had three daughters, and Mesa answered that all he cared about right now was serving God. He said it was the first time those words had ever come out of his mouth. He met his wife, Ashley, three days later.

Looking back, Mesa decided he had misread the word. His new reading: "I'm going to find a wife when I stop needing a wife." What he had told his dad was that he was content.

What this means for you

Mesa's story and Lowe's candy illustration point the same direction: a word from God often makes sense later, and quiet does not always mean distance. If you are in a quiet season, you could ask whether you are being asked to press in, or whether you are simply walking out what you already know.

The stories also show care in how a word is given. Lowe held back what he doubted and spoke what he trusted. Lowe's bucket and well remind you that any word you receive still gets measured against Scripture.

You may also have an idea you once called only a good idea. It could be worth asking God about it, and asking a wise friend as well. This table wanted both revelation and counsel, and so can you.