When I got saved in 1980 there were a few recognized prophets in the global Church – but only a few. But then God began to emphasize the prophetic and people became more equipped and aware. God joined me to one of the few credible prophetic ministries of that era, and I gained extensive training and exposure to the prophetic, including specific awareness of many individual prophetic ministries that God released to the body of Christ. Some of them I know personally and have known for 30 years, others I have known from a distance or just as likely I am familiar with the streams of thought that produced them. While their personal anointings and ministries are unique, the philosophies and broad parameters that define them are common; therefore an understanding of the general basis of their prophetic insight and functionality is apparent.

The last three decades have seen a general trend towards greater awareness of and appreciation for the prophetic in the Church, and I think this trend has been very good in spite of some of the excesses and a few bad apples. The prophetic movement did much good and delivered valuable resource to the body of Christ – I myself am one who was dramatically impacted by it. I received a prophetic word in my early days of walking with the Lord and it had to do with me being called to be a prophet and becoming involved in a school of prophets; that word was a new imperative which changed the track of my life. At the time I was finishing college and shortly thereafter Kathy and I got married; and we began to embark on a process of equipping in the prophetic. Along the way we had four children and moved across the country as a part of our involvement with a team that was building a school of prophets. In our spiritual labor the lessons were rich and diverse, and not primarily in the classroom though much was taught and absorbed. Growing in the prophetic became a lifestyle for me, and after a few years the growth and maturity spilled out into the beginnings of some kind of effective ministry.

To be honest, I was a little surprised when in 1985 some churches that were related to our group invited me to minister. As I prayed and talked with my mentors I accepted many of the invitations, and the Lord helped us encourage the people and strengthen the churches. Then calls and invitations came in from other nations also, and soon I found myself ministering across the U.S. and in South Africa, Trinidad and many other places on a yearly basis.  The prophetic movement was at its height during this time, and I traveled widely as an ambassador into churches and networks. The meetings typically consisted of teaching on the prophetic and ministering over people extensively, giving them prophetic words and insights. I also enjoyed my interactions with the pastors I met and built many powerful friendships. As I returned home each time, I would debrief not only with the people who were training me but also primarily with the Lord. I wanted to know: Did I say what He directed me to and in the way He wanted me to say it? Was I too harsh or too nice? Did I build in a way that was pleasing to the Lord?

The group I was with was holding prophetic conferences and seminars all across the nations of the earth, and I began to travel extensively to churches and prophetic conferences. It was a time when the prophetic movement was sweeping across the earth and in many ways I served as an ambassador of the movement. The emphasis was on teaching about prophets and especially personal prophecy, and teaching people how to hear the voice of God. There was a grace that allowed us to prevail in the face of ignorance and religious traditions, and people all across the earth were being activated not only by receiving a word from the Lord but by the general anointing on the movement. The late 1980s and early 1990s were years of powerful prophetic impartation to leaders, churches and saints all across the nations of the earth.

God continued to open many doors and for the decade of the 1990s we traveled broadly in the United States and across the nations. We ministered extensively in churches and we also were used of the Lord in training others in the prophetic along with conducting extensive ministry to leaders. I was thrilled that God could use me and that I was entering into my destiny, but after a few years a sense of frustration with the prophetic began to emerge within me. It started with a very slight sense of dissatisfaction around 1992 when the prophetic movement (as we called it) was at its height. I knew that I knew that I needed to change and that God wanted more of me. I knew also that the system itself needed to be reformed, but I didn’t know exactly what and I certainly didn’t know how to enact change.

Part of the problem as I saw it was a system of church that was built on individual demand which led to an overemphasis on personal prophecy. People sought more and more prophetic words, but little emphasis was given to the process of maturity and strategic action that would produce fulfillment. I found that when I returned to churches 1-2 years after powerful prophetic ministry, nothing had really changed. On the next visit more prophetic ministry and teaching was given because that is how we measured success and that is what the system demanded – good meetings, powerful manifestations and immediate blessings. I came to realize that a good thing – the prophetic – could be misused if in the incorrect context.

My frustration grew steadily to the point that by 1995 or 1996 I was driving myself (and many of those around me) absolutely crazy! Frankly the years from 1995 to 1999 were difficult. I was lonely even though surrounded by brothers. I was a little confused—why weren’t they experiencing the same kind of intense internal frustration that I was? And when I explained to them, why didn’t they understand? I spent a lot of time and spiritual effort looking into my own heart, convinced that something was wrong with me that could be fixed by simply submitting more fully or by a more complete application of what I already knew.

God began to speak to me from Joseph’s life when as a young man he went to his father to report that his brothers were not shepherding the sheep correctly (Genesis 37:1). Joseph saw a system of shepherding and leadership that was deficient, and he thought that by addressing the deficiencies it would be easily fixed. Little did Joseph know that God was guiding him into his future destiny through pain, betrayal, family dysfunctionality and his own dissatisfaction with the status quo. How naïve Joseph was, and how unschooled and unaware I was in my frustration also – yet like my ancient brother, God was faithful to lead me through many twists and turns in the road and bring me to the place He had always ordained for me to be.

Ironically, the pathway for me to become more authentically prophetic required me to leave the school of prophets.  Frustration made me willing to embrace changes, and the changes were primarily relational. I came into relationship with apostolic leaders that God had destined me to be joined to and a radical reformation process began to occur in my heart. On the outside, things remained much the same—Kathy and I were still deeply in love but I found myself becoming a different kind of husband and father. I was a better servant in our house, more sacrificial and more like Christ in my immediate family relationships. I became less frivolous and more internally profound. There was also an anchoring of my thinking system in the weight of newly perceived ethical imperatives and correct philosophies from the Word of God, and revelation into God’s purposes began to spring forth also.

Something else quite unexpected happened also: the prophetic gift/ability within me died. It got de-activated by God, no one told me I had to reject the old and there was no human conversation about it. Quite literally, I went to sleep one night secure in the 20 year personal history of development in the prophetic and when I woke up the next morning it was gone. During this time I didn’t have permission from God to take many ministry appointments. Pastors kept calling and e-mailing and I took each invitation to God and He kept telling me “NO”. I prophesied over very few people during this period and some of my friends believed that I had rejected the prophetic -  and I can understand why. All they could see was my outwards operations (or lack thereof); they didn’t have insight into the radical movements taking place within my heart and mind.

A few years later I was sitting in London having a conversation with Dr. Noel Woodroffe, the apostolic leader that God has joined me to in divine purpose. As we talked the prophetic leapt back to life inside of me. I could look inside of me and “see it”, and I realized immediately that it was different from the prophetic from before. It was superior, better, enhanced because it existed within a new context. The frustration I had been through made more sense, and there was more understanding of the legitimate right we have been given by the Lord to reject the imperfect and incomplete in order to move to a new place. The power of a journey was underscored and reinforced. And the Word of God was proven true once again – if you lose your life, you will find it!

Out of these deep personal changes God gave me new delivery systems for the prophetic into churches that are much more building oriented. The process of change produced in me a new understanding of how a prophet is meant to function within an apostolic context, part of which is the ability to lead people towards fulfillment of their destiny – which ultimately is Christ likeness. In short, we found a more effective way to deliver prophetic ministry into the churches and also a functional system of follow-up that allows individuals who receive prophetic ministry to engage in a process that leads towards fulfillment. These changes empower pastoral leaders to become more effective stewards of the deposit that is left by the prophets, and it equips them to build people more effectively. The Nehemiah Project is deeply relational as pastors and prophets cooperate together around one purpose: building and maturing Christ’s church.

I have personally trained many prophets over the last 10 years and I am in relationship with them, their families and their churches (click here to read how we train prophets).  The lessons that God taught me through a long process could now be imparted and taught to a new generation of prophets, and The Nehemiah Project draws on this rich resource of people from across the earth, prophets who know how to build and who can strengthen and impart life to the local church (click here for biographies of our Associated Ministries). So whether myself and Kathy come to a church or one of our Associated Ministries is sent, quality building and impartation occurs.