Summer 2005
The Higher Prophetic Realm
Wade E Taylor

“And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said to me, See you do it not: I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Revelation 19:10

There is a difference between the “gift of prophecy” and the “spirit of prophecy.” The gift of prophecy means that I have yielded to the “unction” that comes upon me, and a prophetic word results as the Holy Spirit activates my spirit, and I speak in words what I feel. This is limited, as we have received the Spirit, “in part.”

“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” I Corinthians 13:9-10

That which is “perfect” is Jesus. When Jesus takes His place as the “Head” of His corporate body, and then expresses His thoughts and words through that “body, the result is the “Spirit of Prophecy.” Thus, the “spirit of prophecy” functions through our identity with Jesus. As we “die” to the expression of our self-lives, and we “live” in identity with our Lord’s resurrection, we become the expression of His life and words.

“Therefore, through baptism we were buried with Him into His death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too may live an entirely new life. For if we have become united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” Romans 6:4-5 ISV

Paul understood this:

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” Galatians 2:20a

In the outworking of this “crucified life,” the words that came from Paul were no longer his words, but the Lord’s words finding expression through him. This is “The Spirit of Prophecy” – “Christ living in me.”

Jesus prayed that we might become “one” with Him, even as He and His Father are one.

“Then answered Jesus and said to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do: for what things soever He does, these also does the Son likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that Himself does.” John 5:19-20a

“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are.” John 17:11

When we come to the level of personal relationship with Jesus in which we become “one” with Him, we become the expression of His life. This is limited only by the “measure” of our relationship to Jesus, as He received the Holy Spirit “without measure.”

“He who comes from above is above all ... For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.” John 3:31, 34-35 NAS

When I become “one with Jesus” in relationship and communion, His life and words can find expression through my life. Now the words that I speak are no longer my words, but they have become “the testimony of Jesus” – that which He desires to speak through my life.

John the Baptist is an example of this. When asked who he was, “He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah” (John 1:23). His life had become so “one” with the Lord, that the words he spoke were the words of the Lord.

“Follow after charity (love), and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.” I Corinthians 14:1 (comment added)

A literal translation of this verse reads, “Follow after love, and desire spirituals, so that you may prophesy.” We are to “desire spirituals.” That is, we are to desire to grow into this higher level of relationship to the Lord, that His life might find expression through our lives.

“But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet show I to you a more excellent way.” I Corinthians 12:31

This word, “covet” is a very strong word. The “more excellent way” is not as many say - that ”love” is more important than our exercise of the prophetic. Rather, this verse is saying that all prophetic expression that flows through our lives is to be motivated by sacrificial love.

We are to covet earnestly a freedom in the Spirit to pray in tongues, and to develop and move into a higher level of prophetic identification with the Lord. This “more excellent way,” a higher level of personal relationship with the Lord, must be cultivated.

Isaiah 50:4 reveals the “secret” of the ministry of Jesus (the tongue of the learned), and the method of our entering this higher level of “prophetic identification” with Jesus – “the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy.”

“The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakens morning by morning, He wakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.”

“The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned.” This means that these words are not my words, but they have been given to me by the Lord. Jesus is increasingly taking His place as the manifest head of His body, and He is beginning to speak through the “Spirit of prophecy.”

One time, two ladies asked about Esau and Jacob, as to why the Lord said that He hated Esau and loved Jacob. I had never heard an explanation as to why, but I explained it to them as though I had always known. The Lord had given me “the tongue of the learned.”

The Lord may wake us up during the night season or early in the morning, to spend time in His presence. But, our being “awakened” transcends and means far more than our being awakened from sleep. It tells us that if we will respond, the Lord will “awaken our spirit,” and we will hear His word (the Spirit of prophecy) in the inner depth of our being.

This is an “awakening” from the natural into the spiritual - from the gift realm into the higher realm of identity with the Lord through relationship. It is a “lifting” of our being, out of the temporal into the eternal. It is a “sensitizing” of our inner being into the realms of the Spirit.

Thus, “Let him who has an ear hear.” We are lifted from the prophetic “gift” realm into the “Spirit” realm, in which the “testimony of Jesus” flows out from our spirit, as we commune with Him.

For this higher prophetic realm to function, we must be “awakened.” Through redemption, and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, we have become a new creation and the “capacity” for this higher realm of relationship has been recreated within us.

“He wakens morning by morning.” This is the result of an ongoing process in which I am faithful to continue to respond to His presence, and spend quality time with Him. This “morning” I will receive a touch of His quickening presence, but tomorrow morning, I will receive even more.

Today, there are those who are moving through the veil into His manifest presence, to be changed into His image and likeness and give expression to His words. There are those who will respond and say as Mary said, "Be it unto me according to your purpose.” The Lord can afford to wait for another generation, but we cannot. By the enabling power of the Lord, we are the generation that will enter in.

We have not gone this way before. This is a learning process, and we must be careful not to reject the manifestation of the Spirit because of past mistakes. Also, there is a counterfeit, but we must be careful not to “throw out the baby with the bath water.”

“And He said to them, He that has ears to hear, let him hear.” Mark 4:9

Many are sincerely seeking and are being awakened, “morning by morning,” as they learn how to respond. The Lord is patient as He seeks to bring us into this higher realm of “the Spirit of Prophecy” that His voice will again be heard in all nations.