Many people have this misconception that prophets make big sweeping “prophecies” that are supposed to predict the future and that these prophets are supposed to be right every time or shut their trap forever if they make a mistake. Most people who call themselves “prophets,” or who at least claim to be “operating in the prophetic gift,” won’t usually try and tell you the capitol f Future, or even necessarily try to tell you you’re future. Most legitimate “prophets” I have heard of would probably just say that they know how to listen to God.
Now, we have a God who loves us so when he speaks he will not uncommonly whisper things very pertinent and real to the people who are listening. Or he may speak things to someone with open ears that are meant for someone who refuses to listen. This is where prophets come in and this is where it gets personal, powerful, and real. This is also where Herb Marks and I come into the story.
Herb Marks is a local “prophet” with a significant reputation. He served on staff at New Life Center, a huge Foursquare church in Everett, Washington, and while he was there, there was joking amongst some people that if you had any bad habits you shouldn’t go when Herb was speaking because he would “read your mail.” Herb is so gifted that he was hired by one church to do nothing but pray for people. Two or three years ago I saw Herb at Hope Foursquare in Snohomish, Washington, but I wasn’t there for his service. I was there for band practice and he was stealing our time because his service was taking too long. I was waiting in the back for him to finish up and head out when he caught my eye and, despite the fact that there was a large line of people waiting to talk him, he motioned for me to come up and talk to him.
At that point in my life I was skeptical, both of this guy and of the idea that God would speak through someone I had never met to say something useful to me. However, I went up and Herb walked me through a series of questions culminating in him asking me what the single biggest thing standing between God and I was, to which I responded… cantaloupes. I say that because the answer to that question was fairly personal and cantaloupes seem like a good substitute.
Two weeks ago I went and saw Herb a second time, this time with a very different mindset. Having now witnessed some very real prophecies and other incredible acts of God, I was more prepared to believe what Herb had to say. I was also strongly reminded of the fact that the cantaloupes him and I had discussed were still very present in my life. After Herb spoke he began to ask for people to stand if they felt a breeze against their legs. I thought I had felt the breeze but wasn’t really sure so I didn’t stand. He then said that there was one person who wasn’t standing because they weren’t sure if they had felt the breeze or not. I promptly stood up. When I rose Herb didn’t recognize me but began to tell me some pretty remarkable things. He made a point of saying that I needed to become a man of integrity, he also emphasized that he was NOT calling out sin in my life. This is rather important because some prophets can see the sin in people’s lives and will call it out in front of people, but that is quite destructive and is not the way that prophets are meant to handle that kind of information.
After speaking directly to me for a while Herb asked everyone that was standing to go and be prayed for by one of the people on the prayer team. God pointed out someone specific for me to pray with named George. Before I even approached him he came to me and asked if I wanted him to pray for me, I of course obliged. He prayed for me generally first and told me some things about myself that I may share another time, but not now. He then asked what specifically I wanted prayer for and I of course told him it was the cantaloupes. As he began to pray, God gave me an image of a small pink planet. I was standing on the planet and next to me was a large brick wall a few feet taller than I was. On the other side of the wall was the sun. The sun’s rays were shining over the top of the wall and my planet was entirely lit up despite the fact that the wall stood between the sun and me and I couldn’t see the sun itself. As George continued to pray the wall suddenly came down and became nothing more than a pile of bricks at my feet. I could now see the sun directly and step over the wall and it would not hinder me in the least, as long as I didn’t rebuild the wall myself.
Now, two weeks later, the wall is still down. Don’t get me wrong, the temptation has returned. I, however, have a new attitude about it. Now when the rotten cantaloupes show up, my attitude is one that says, “No, that’s a terrible idea! That is only going to be hindering to me and I should NOT do it.” As opposed to one that said, “Oh, I shouldn’t do it, but…” Two things that are helping me in this fight are the example set by the life of Jesus and the book of James. When Jesus was tempted he didn’t pussyfoot around and think about it, he immediately quoted scripture and walked away. The scripture I usually think of is in Phillipians (I think) when Paul calls people out for making their stomach their God, and for me, that’s a real quick shutdown. What James says in chapter 1 verse 15 is, “when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin.” So a natural extension of thought from that verse is to ask what it is I desire that I am trying to satisfy with a big orange fruit. So I’m asking God; what is it?
Rob Bell, in his book Sex God, talks about our desires. He says that our desires, in and of themselves, are not the problem. God gave us, and gives us, our desires. Problems arise when our desires are misdirected. Desires require an immense amount of energy and those desires, along with the energy that drives them, need to be directed towards positive things. In the book of Ephesians, Paul says that thieves first, need to stop stealing, but then they need to begin to work with their hands (the thing they once used to steal), and begin to work towards something good. He says this because, in essence, it’s impossible to focus on not doing something, so we need a positive to dwell on if we are to be rid of the negative influences.
The cantaloupes of my life used to make up a great brick wall that stood between God and I, but that wall has fallen. I still have those desires. Those bricks are still there. Now it is time to use the bricks to build a bridge to bring me closer to the sun. Or a bridge that will take me to another planet where I can help someone else tear down his or her wall. Or use those bricks to build a monument to God. Or crush the cantaloupes into some cantaloupe juice and bring the good out of them and share it with others. Or… well you get the idea.
