Revelation is an uncovering or disclosure via communication from the divine of something that has been partially or wholly hidden or unknown, “which could not be known apart from the unveiling” (Goswiller 1987 p. 3).

The Prophetic word is made up of four components:

1. The Will-Hebrews 9:16-17 which says,

16 For where there is the [last] will or testament involved, the death of the one who made it must be established,

17 For the will or testament is valid and takes effect only at death, since it has no force or legal power as long as the one who made it is alive (AMP).

The Prophetic word is the only way through which He passes inheritance rights to His people through a will or deed because the Word who became flesh paid the price for the transfer when He was certified dead when the spear was thrust in His side and blood and water flowed from it (see John 19: 31-35). The will contains God’s plan hidden from the foundation of the world and how He would qualify all humanity to receive the inheritance. Colossians 1: 12, makes our qualification very clear: He is Jesus, the Messiah, Savior and Lord.

The suffering, death, burial and resurrection of the Messiah hold the key to transfer of the inheritance (the will) to all men who accept they qualify because of the price the Messiah paid. Access to the will no longer depends on God but on whosoever knows and accepts God had planned the transfer to them before now when He gave His son as substitute for them.

2. God’s purpose-Ephesians 1: 9 says,

9 Making known to us the mystery (secret) of His will (of His plan, of His purpose). [And it is this:] In accordance with His good pleasure (His merciful intention) which He had previously purposed and set forth in Himself (AMP).

One gets the understanding that the reason why God planned transferring His will to us is because of His love in making us heirs according to the promise. He goes a step further to put security measures in place to make His purpose stand as recorded in Isaiah 46: 10 saying:

10 Declaring the end and the result from the beginning (that is, Only I can tell you the future before it even happens) and from ancient times the things that are not yet done (that is, Everything I plan will come to pass) saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure and purpose”.

God’s Counsel are pre-planned results already achieved and obtained after going through the highest intelligent scrutiny, assessment and verification then awaiting the declaration to a person who will receive them.

The purpose of making plain this plan is so that we know and understand that everything in creation must happen according to this plan. He also put buffers in place to prevent failures to the plan so that we can be confident that the inheritance is ours for the taking.

3. God’s counsel represents preplanned events spoken by God with already determined outcomes. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus speaks of a predetermined course of events that must take place to fulfill all the prophets spoke should happen, Matthew 26: 56 says, “56 But this is all happening to fulfill the words of the prophets as recorded in the Scriptures (NLT). One finds again in Luke 22:21 and Luke 23: 24:25-27, that the sequence of events had a preplanned course of action waiting for whom it is spoken and documented about. Luke 22: 21 says, For it has been determined that the Son of Man must die (NLT) and Luke 24: 25-27 reads, 25He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself, (NIV).

4. God’s pleasure is to see all His plans come to pass in every person who trusts Him because they understand that His choices are the best well intentioned and wonderfully crafted outcome waiting for the person who would dare walk in His plans so that God is proved right about the choices made before the foundations of the world were laid.

Second, God designed the whole plan so that He will be glorified through the wonderful things that happen to us as the world watch His plans unfold in our lives because we trusted the choices He made to reveal Himself to the world through our lives and destiny.

The Spirit

1st Corinthians 2:9-14, speaks of plans that are hidden by God that He only makes known to His people by the Holy Spirit He has given them. The passage makes it clear that no man can know them or receive them because they are spoken in a spiritual language to people who have been raised to life spiritually making it possible for them to discern what the spirit is saying. Most astounding is the fact that God calls them in 1^st Corinthians 2: 10 the deep things of God which are searched and accessed by the Holy Spirit and then given to us freely because it pleases God to let us have and enjoy them:

10Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny] (AMP).

Prayer

Prayer is the place where we enter God’s presence with boldness to obtain all He has promised in the name of His son, Jesus the Messiah. One must understand that God has given all things to His son, Jesus which is the reason we can access all things from the Father through faith in His name.

Whenever we come to the Father in the name of His son Jesus, we put God in a position He anticipated He would be in whenever a request is made in the name of His son Jesus. Romans 8: 32 says, 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (KJV).

Asking the Father for anything in the name of Jesus breaks the barrier that existed between the physical and divine realms merging them into one called the Kingdom of God arriving. The implication of which is the direct intervention of God in whatever situation we are calling Him to act on our behalf.

Jesus says in John 6: 63,It is the Spirit Who gives life [He is the Life-giver]; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever [there is no profit in it]. The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life” (AMP). When we pray in Jesus name to the Father, the words of our prayer produce the life to our dead and hopeless situation through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Therefore, 1^st John 5: 13-14 says the Father pays attention to what we are saying, and considers and accepts our requests and gives us the answer based on His promise only. The implication of which is we already know the answer before going before God in prayer because He answers and grants our requests because He promised to do so-Numbers 23:19, and Titus 1:2 reveals how God can not no matter the circumstances, situation or persons involved.

Imagination

This is beyond thoughts. They are the plans of God made plain and usable to us because the Holy Spirit searched them out in the place of prayer to the Father in the name of Jesus and utters them, that is speaks them into existence for us to possess.

God is able to make His plans available to us by revelation through His Spirit. Pharaoh in Genesis 41: 38 recognizes that God’s Spirit is capable of revealing hidden things to His people. The scripture reads, “So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” (NIV). Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:47 and Daniel 4:8 say:

Daniel 2:47, The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou could reveal this secret (KJV).

Daniel 4: 8, But at last Daniel came in before me–he who was named Belteshazzar, after the name of my god, and in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God–and I told the dream before him, saying, (AMP).

God reveals things to people who He has given of His Spirit, and those who make it a point of duty to be led and controlled by the Spirit of God so they can receive all that God has for them.

Are you one of those? Are there things you wished you had answers to?

Acts 13: 1-6 says, in verse 2, While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Separate now for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them (AMP).

God has sent His Spirit to speak concerning the work He the Father has for us meant to give us the purpose for our being here on earth.

 

 

The first investor in history happens to be a Chief Executive of a world Corporation who was confronted with strategic decisions that needed foresight with an impossible task of starting His Corporation from nothing and Genesis 1: 2 says:

“The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters”.

Here we see God brooding, that is to think through a plan of action which is actually the strategic planning exercise the management team embarks upon before launching a product or service.

Then something extraordinary happens, Genesis 1: 3, “And God spoke the prophetic word which brought light into existence”. Every other plan He had prepared in His heart was brought into existence through the Prophetic word. The trend was like this, “He thought about it, He spoke it, It happened just like He said it, He observed and evaluated it, Then gave His approval of it that it was good”.  

The business enterprise thousands of years ago which gave one nation a competitive advantage over the other providing them with opportunities for expansion, acquisitions, growth, wealth and recapitalization was war. The war of years ago is equivalent to today’s rapidly changing, fast-cycled business challenges where a corporation without the ability and capabilities to respond proactively to business opportunities disappears the way big names like Sears, RCA and IBM became irrelevant because they matched radical changes with incremental innovation-a strategy that relegated them to the sidelines with new players taking their positions.

God invented a plan for this when He asked Moses in Exodus 25 to build a tabernacle for worship so that He could dwell in the midst of the people. The essence of God living in the midst of His people was so He could direct their decision-making, solve their problems, meet their needs and give them the competitive advantage over their enemies through victories and exploits in His expansion plans to give them territories and spheres of influence beyond their boundaries.

He gave them the Torah to guide their relationship with Him and their neighbors. He gave them the vessels of worship to get them engaged with Him on a personal level. When it came to decision-making, problem-solving, and strategic plans and foresight about any matter God gave them the Ephod, Urim and Thummim so that His people could enquire of the Lord concerning any matter, Numbers 27:18-23 says:

18 So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him. 19 Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. 20 Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him. 21 He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim [one of two articles in the priest's breastplate worn when asking counsel of the Lord for the people] before the LORD. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in.”

 22 Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly. 23 Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the LORD instructed through Moses.

God knew Israel would need to make decisions that would affect their lives daily so gave them the Urim and Thummim because God wanted to be part of man’s existence here on earth since He created it He alone knows how it worked. Leaving man to himself was to be a disaster which God believed was too costly so He made plans to give man counsel always through the Urim and Thummim of the priests. The only problem with this picture was one needed to be a priest from the lineage of Aaron or a Levite from the tribe of Levi to know how to read the answer from the Urim and Thummim. The Urim and Thummim were defined as that which shows light or enlightens, speaking about God giving the Prophetic word that brings revelation concerning any matter.

The amazing thing here is it took a prophet, Moses to make these materials for the priest. God still preferred to talk to His prophets concerning His plans for His people because the Urim and Thummim contained stones that had Yes and No answers in a bag which reveals God’s decision on any matter after prayers before Him. But remember the only persons qualified to use them are priests and Levites.

Since God understood the need man had for direction and strategic decisions He maintained communications with His people through the prophets. Whenever Israel was to go to war, they inquired through the prophets if they would have victory before gearing up for war. David had prophets Samuel, Gad, and Nathan even in the battle with his son Absalom.

Are there battles you are facing today or business decisions that has kept you in one position for some time? The question is this: Do you have a prophet by your side to hear from God concerning the situation so you could have a breakthrough?

All Kings, righteous and wicked made it a point of national security to have the prophetic word for all major decisions. One sees Pharaoh of Egypt in Genesis 41 receiving the prophetic word from Joseph, and Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapters 2 and 4 receiving the same from Daniel, Hezekiah also receiving the prophetic word from Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 36-37.

Today, the business executive lives in the most uncertain times like the former kings and Israelites lived hundreds of years ago and Hebrews 13:8, and Malachi 3: 6a says, “I am the Lord, and I do not change” (NLT).

Remember, the first mission Jesus accomplished as soon as He rose from the dead in Ephesians 4: 8 and11, were to commission the following offices for the benefit of those He loves. These offices include:

This is why it says:
   ”When He ascended on high, He led captives in His train
    and gave gifts to men.

  “11 It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets,     some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.

God never wants His people to live without His Prophetic word. Remember that Israel had the scriptures but God still gave them prophets. The same way we have the scriptures today and God through Jesus has given us prophets for the benefit of the people He loves.

The real question this: Do you have a prophet who fulfills God’s mandate of receiving from Him and proclaiming the prophetic word you need for your business to go to the next level as an executive?

Prophecy is “God making known the mystery (secret) of His will (of His plan, of His purpose) to His children. [And it is this:] In accordance with His good pleasure (His merciful intention) which He had previously purposed and set forth in Himself” (Ephesians 1:9, AMP). One must realize that Prophecy is portrayed in imagery in Hebrews 12: 2a, as a book authored by God waiting to be discovered by all humanity. This book picturesque in Ephesians 1: 5, the author is seen to have taken a long hard thought about the contents of the book for eternity before piecing the content together. Hebrews 12: 2a strongly suggests that the author is also the executor of the content for anyone who makes a decision to know what the author planned to execute in his or her life.

The concept of prophecy is same as God conceiving the idea from the beginning in Genesis 1: 26 and did not stop at the conception; He spoke the idea into existence giving the concept, idea, and vision He knew and planned for an existence in the material world for all to see. Genesis 1: 26 says, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth” (KJV Bible). Prophecy is God’s only way to conceive, and bring His plan into material existence through His creative word. Thus the expression, “No word, no material existence of life in the world”.

Through Prophecy, God determined before time the purpose, destiny, domain or territory of influence and position and role man would play in creation as a whole. Have you ever asked yourself the question: What am I doing here (that is, on earth)?

We see examples of this in Luke 1 and 2 as the angel Gabriel prophesied about the birth, territory of influence, purpose, destiny and role John the Baptist and Jesus would play before they were conceived. We see this played out in Genesis 15: 12-16, God telling Abraham 430 years before how his children would become slaves in a foreign land and be delivered through God’s intervention when it was clear to Abraham he and his wife Sarah were barren, old and had no possibility of having children.

 How does Prophecy Work?

Prophecy is the word coming from the mouth of the Lord unto a person for the purpose of God revealing Himself and purpose to the world and the person.

What does God require to bring His word to pass? Hebrews 3: 19 says, “So we see that they were not able to enter [into the rest He prophesied to Abraham], because of their unwillingness to adhere to and trust in and rely on God [unbelief had shut them out]”.  We see this lack of cooperation with the Prophetic word defined as unbelief, which is turning to human reasoning instead of acting in ways that shows that God who promised is able to perform what He said, Hebrews 10:23 “So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word or to do what He promised” (AMP & NLV).

The prophetic word demands our cooperation because the word spoken takes root first in our hearts, then is acknowledged and made receipt of with our mouth through confession and profession, Romans 10:8 and 10 says:

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming; 10For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation.

The Prophetic word is the word from God sown into the good ground of one’s heart, Luke 8: 11, and 15:

 11 Now the meaning of the parable is this: “The seed is the Word of God. 15But as for that [seed] in the good soil, these are [the people] who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in a just (noble, virtuous) and worthy heart, and steadily bring forth fruit with patience” (AMP).

Therefore, one who is to enter into all that God through the prophetic word plans to execute must be careful not to fall into unbelief despite the word is theirs but they may disqualify themselves because they fail to cooperate with God’s plan of greatness like King Saul did in 1^st Samuel 15 :22 and 23; and Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years until all the generation that came out of Egypt who through unbelief refused to enter and possess the land all died because they believed a different plan not spoken of by God (see Numbers 13-14). Hebrews 4:1-2, warns expressly about this,

1  THEREFORE, WHILE the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it], lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of [reaching] it.   2For indeed we have had the glad tidings [Gospel of God] proclaimed to us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it; neither were they united in faith with the ones [Joshua and Caleb] who heard (did believe).

Now consider this: Do you have access to the Prophetic word? Do you understand how it works? Are you ready to enter the place prepared by God for you before He created the world? Do you think you need the Prophet in your life?

If you answered Yes to all the questions, the reason is because your time of and for change has been long overdue and you need to act your faith, which is actually the definition of believing.

God’s blue print to prophecy, Proverbs 29: 18, states “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint” (NIV), “Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish” (AMP).

 In Matthew 4: 4, “But He replied, it has been written, Man shall not live, be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God”.

 In the Old Testament book of Genesis 3: 8, Adam and Eve heard the Voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day which was a regular sight and a normal occurrence which did not call attention to any usual event because this was their lifestyle. The decision by Adam and Eve to begin listening to the serpent changed the dynamics of a life filled with revelation, purpose, destiny and influence over all creation as provided for by God. This paradigm shift from hearing God’s voice to the serpent’s presented new challenges Adam and Eve were unprepared for. Had they known that contact with God’s voice was the height of man’s identity an experience likened to one eaves dropping on what heavens angels mused about which was a mysterious position occupied by man in the heart of the Creator as described in Psalms 8:4-8, “What is man that you should think of him, / the son of man that you should care for him, and that thou visits him? Yet you made him [i.e., man] a little lower than Elohim (that is God Himself). You made him ruler over the works of your hands; You put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas” (AMP, NIV).

God who has no equal (Isaiah 43:10-14), yet He decided to reveal Himself and His majesty to man by speaking with man daily as a man speaks with His own son.

The voice of God stayed silent from Adam’s fall until Noah, and afterwards stayed silent again until Abraham. After Joseph the voice of the Lord stayed silent again until Moses in Exodus 3: 4 at the burning bush on mount Horeb (also called Sinai). After the death of Moses, God raised Joshua and other prophets as His voice to the people at desperate times from the book of Judges right until now Ephesians 4:11, and I Thessalonians 5: 20.

God commanded Moses in Exodus 25 to build a tabernacle so He could dwell among His people. He made sure Moses built the tabernacle according to the pattern he saw in the mountain, Hebrews 8: 5. The most fascinating revelation in Israel’s worship and relationship with God was not the tabernacle; it was God speaking to them through His voice. In Deuteronomy 4: 12, “And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the voice of the words, but saw no form; there was only a voice” (AMP). The writing of the 10 Commandments on tables of stone was not the original intent for God’s relationship with Israel for He looked forward to the day when He could have a two way conversation with humans which is the ultimate life God intended when He said in Genesis 1: 26b-27, “Let us make man in our own image after our likeness”.

After Israel rejected this two way conversation with God in Exodus 20:19-22, the prophets became God’s best alternative to reveal things to people, Amos 3: 7 says, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing (KJV) or indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets (AMP).

Today, God wants to speak His plans as in Jeremiah 29:11 to you of goodness, mercy and blessings. But wait a minute; is there a prophet in your life through whom He can reveal His counsel to you?