The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere Quotes

“Why would God show a prophet something and not give him permission to share it? Perhaps He is calling the prophet to intercede instead of prophesy.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“unless the Lord says otherwise, every revelation is also a call to prayer.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“The discipline to be silent when God is silent or when He has withheld permission to speak is a sign of prophetic maturity. [...] No one gets to the highest level of prophetic ministry without mastering the skill of prophetic restraint. These are the prophets who can be trusted with revelation that is not yet ripe for sharing, that must be “sealed” for a later use (see Isa. 8:16; 29:11; Dan. 8:26; 12:4,9). These are the prophets to whom God can show great secrets, then trust them never to repeat what they heard or saw to anyone (see 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 10:4).”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“After Isaiah delivered one of his most difficult messages of judgment, he said, “I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in him” (Isa. 8:17). Follow Isaiah’s example, wait for the Lord and put your trust in Him so that you won’t succumb to the Rejected Prophet Syndrome.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“great prophets have always been great interceders.

If we truly want our prophetic word to draw our hearers to God, then we should pray for them after we deliver the message.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“We have to be careful not to say more than God has said.

If we add anything, we should distinguish between the revelation and our own opinions regarding its meaning and application. Our opinion may be valuable, but if we carelessly lead our hearers to believe it is what God has said, it will probably be deceptive.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Sometimes the Lord does not give the prophet an interpretation or application of a revelation, but He still has him speak the revelation. In this case, the Lord may be testing the hearts of the hearers to see if they value His word enough to seek Him for its meaning and application.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“We also need the Lord to show us how to apply the revelation [...] People are different, and therefore the same truth may need to be applied in different ways if it is going to benefit the hearer. An application that would needlessly provoke one person may be just right for another.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Never give a prophetic word to someone without asking and receiving the Lord’s permission first.

I am often asked, “How do we know if we have the Lord’s permission to give the word?” The answer is, He will tell us if we ask Him.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Those who want to look like great prophets always end up needlessly hurting others.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“I failed to appreciate the power of the general word I had been given and thought I could improve it by making it more specific. I was actually adding to the revelation I had received.

Sometimes we do this because we think that people value specific words more than general ones [...] Sometimes we are tempted to add a few specific details to make us appear more powerful. But don’t do it. If the general word is from the Lord, it will have power. Adding to it will only dilute or ruin it.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Emphasize the main and the plain, not the rare and the bizarre. [...]
Don’t do anything strange without a clear leading from God. [...]
Don’t do anything prophetically that is potentially embarrassing or harmful to another person without his or her permission. [...]
Repeat after me: “I am not an exception to the rules. I am a beginner in the school of the prophets.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“in our church we have three expressions of prophetic ministry on Sunday morning. Two or three prophets will address the whole church from the stage. We have about six to eight people who can do this well, but only two or three do it during the service. At the next level, we have ministry teams that pray over people at the end of each service. Finally, a number of our people will give prophetic words one on one informally. This procedure eliminates some of the craziness unstructured prophetic ministry allows”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Sunday morning is the time for the expression of our most mature gifts. It is not the time where people learn how to teach or prophesy.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“the problem with allowing anyone to prophesy to the whole church on Sunday morning—it is just not that helpful to the whole church. Most of the people who speak are not really prophesying, nor do they have authority to address the whole church. I have watched churches try to do prophetic ministry in this way for years and have never seen it build a strong prophetic ministry in the church. This method teaches people to ignore—or worse—despise prophetic ministry.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Paul talked a lot more about the Lord than he did about his strange experiences with the Lord.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“How should we respond when we encounter one of God’s strange acts today? We should glorify Him for the experience. Unfortunately, some in the Church glorify the experience.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“from the beginning to the end of the Bible, God did strange things. It would be foolish to imagine that once the Bible was completed, God changed His ways to accommodate our sense of good taste. He is still doing strange things.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Before we use the prophets of the Bible to justify some unorthodox action on our part, we should remember that they had the highest levels of discernment and character.

When God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac or Hosea to marry Gomer, the issue was not whether or not they were discerning accurately the voice of God. They heard His voice clearly. The issue was obedience. We should also expect God’s voice to be that clear before doing something strange, especially when we could hurt someone.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“If we are foolish enough, we will always be able to find something in the Bible to justify wrong or weird behavior or corruption in our hearts.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Instead of learning from the failures of his bizarre behavior, Robert developed a theology to justify it. God “told” him somewhere along his journey that his ministry would be rejected. Armed with the weird incidents of the Bible and a divine promise of rejection, he would always be able to justify his antisocial ways and blame someone else for his failures in ministry.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“The only way to derive comfort here is to assume that God does not speak anymore except in the pages of the Bible, or that He has given up His strange ways. But you probably would not be reading this book if you believed that. It is much more likely that you believe God still speaks today and that He might even ask you to do something strange.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Prophets do not live in a tidy world. They move in realms where angels and demons cross paths, where the counterfeit and the real intermingle. Confusion and ambiguity are their frequent companions.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Of all the gifts, none seem to rest on such flimsy experiences as prophecy. No ministry is as difficult to learn. It is so much more art than science. It may also be the most valuable of all the gifts.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“How can we tell the difference between a true warning dream and a tormenting dream? First, we must see if there is a connection between the dream and what we were doing just before we fell asleep. Second, does the dream reflect something we habitually fear or worry about? Fear and worry are entry points for demonic deception. Third, does the dream take away our hope, making us feel that neither prayer nor repentance will help? Hopelessness and condemnation are signs of the accuser’s revelation.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“All prophetic people I know are subject to tormenting dreams, which only seem to be revelatory. They tell a very real and coherent story, but it’s a bad story, usually the thing the prophetic person fears most.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Most of the time, negative events in dreams and visions are warnings, not decreed events (see Job 33:13-18). The dream may warn us what will happen if we do not repent of a certain attitude or behavior. Or we may not be doing anything wrong at all. Perhaps the devil has planned a special attack against us, and the negative dream is an encouragement to pray so that the calamity won’t come to pass.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“the most common mistake made in interpreting dreams and visions is to take something literally that was intended to be taken symbolically.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Our thoughts and feelings about the symbol are important too, for God chooses particular symbols because of their potential to communicate with us.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere

“Conversing with the One who gave us the symbols is the best way to discover their meaning. [...] there is no manual of symbols that will give us ready-made interpretations of the nonliteral elements in our dreams and visions. This is because symbols can have different meanings in different contexts.”
― Jack Deere, The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy by Jack Deere