A Prophetic Voice
A Prophetic Voice
“I wish that all the LORD’S people were prophets.”
Numbers 11:29
During the 2012 NCAA basketball tournament, I heard a postgame interview with Buzz Williams, coach of the Marquette Screaming Eagles. Following a victory that advanced their team to the Sweet Sixteen, Coach Williams referred to his players as “lion chasers.” That caught my attention because I use this phrase repeatedly in my book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. It turns out that his pastor, who went to college with me, gave Buzz a copy of the book. He and many of his players read it right before March Madness began.
During the off-season, Buzz flew out to D.C. so we could spend a few hours together. We discovered that pastors have something to learn from coaches, and coaches have something to learn from pastors. Buzz is the first person to admit he’s a “work in progress.” So am I. But I love the fact that his intensity for Jesus matches his intensity for basketball. And he’s not just interested in how his kids perform on the court; he’s investing in them for eternity.
Only four of the kids on Buzz’s current squad know their biological father. Only two of them come from a family with an intact marriage. Many of the kids on his team didn’t have a father’s voice of love or discipline, so Buzz is that voice.
During the first one hundred days of a freshman’s involvement in his program, Buzz meets with them on a daily basis. They come to his office, and he prays with them, even the kids who don’t believe in God. Buzz told me he’s had a few awkward silences! After praying with each other, they embrace each other. And Coach Williams tells them he loves them.
I think Buzz sees his squad of twelve the way Jesus saw His twelve disciples. And isn’t that how we should see every person whom God has intentionally put in our lives — family members, friends, colleagues, and neighbors? Buzz is more than a coach who sees athletic potential in his players; he is a prophet who sees the spiritual potential. And he knows that those two things are not unrelated.
Personal Prophecies
Prayer isn’t just the way we cultivate our own potential; prayer is the way we recognize potential in others. Like Paul, who saw gifts in Timothy that Timothy couldn’t see in himself, we, through prayer, are enabled to see with prophetic eyes. We are given supernatural insight. Then we are prepared to speak with prophetic boldness into the lives God has positioned in our path.
Jewish philosophers did not believe that the prophetic gift was reserved for a few select individuals; they believed that becoming prophetic was the crowning point of mental and spiritual development. The more we grow in grace, the more prophetic we become.
This doesn’t mean we will start predicting the future; it means we’ll start creating it. How? Through our prayers! Prayer is the way we write the future. It’s the difference between letting things happen and making things happen. And when we speak prophetic words into someone’s life, it gives them a new lease on life.
According to 1 Corinthians 14:3, a prophet speaks words of comfort and encouragement as prompted by the Holy Spirit. And prophets come in all sizes and shapes. But the common denominator is prophetic insight that is the by-product of intercessory prayer. The more we pray, the more prophetic we will become. And I know it’s a play on words, but the less we pray, the more pathetic we will become. Sorry, I couldn’t resist, because it’s true.
Laurie Beth Jones has stateda that at least 40 percent of our lives are based on personal prophecies. I’m not sure how to substantiate this statistic, but I find it very believable. The right word spoken at the right time can make an eternal difference. In The Power of Positive Prophecy, Jones gives a great example of how one prophetic word can change a person’s destiny:
I grew up in an alcoholicb household where I never heard a positive word. On my way home from school I would always stop in at Jimmy’s, the local dry cleaner, because he kept candy on the counter. He got to know me, and told me one afternoon, “Michael, you are a very smart boy. Someday you are going to run a very big business.” I would listen to him in disbelief and return home only to get called a “dog” and knocked around by my dad. But you know … Jimmy the dry cleaner was the only person I can remember believing in me … Today I run a multimillion-dollar health care organization, just like Jimmy predicted. I guess you could say that a dry cleaner was the prophet in my life.
You may not see yourself as a prophet, but you are one. You’re a prophet to your friends. As I write about in Praying Circles around Your Children, parents are prophets to their children. You’re a prophet at work and a prophet at home. And your words have the potential to change lives by helping people discover their identity and destiny in Jesus Christ.
Sometimes you need the courage to rebuke. When you catch kids doing something wrong, for example, lovingly remind them of this: that’s not who you are. And when you catch them doing something right, reinforce it. Celebrate what you want to see more of. That’s one way to fan into flame the gift of God.
You don’t have to influence thousands of lives to make a difference. Maybe you’re called to influence one person who will influence thousands. You sow into their life so they can reap a harvest. The fruit of their life is your reward.
I’ve always been inspired by something that the former Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld said: “It is more noblec to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.”
At critical junctures in my life, God has sent prophets across my path. They were ordinary people — a missionary named Chris Smith, a college professor named Opel Reddin, a mentor named Dick Foth. God used them to speak the right word at the right time. God gets all the glory for everything He does in us and through us, but there are people along the way who get some credit as well.
Prayer is the way we recognize potential in others.
a Laurie Beth Jones has stated: Laurie Beth Jones, The Power of Positive Prophecy: Finding the Hidden Potential in Everyday Life (New York: Hyperion, 1999), ix.
b “I grew up in an alcoholic”: Ibid., xii.
c “It is more noble”: Quoted in Stephen Covey, Principle-Centered Leadership (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), 60.
From the book
