Prophetic mentoring and community
By Jeremy Groves
The nature of biblical ministry and mentorship that we, as the children of God and leaders in the Body of Christ, are called to is one of sacrificial service. It's not about building monuments to our names, but about joyfully passing on what we know so that others can benefit.
We do not live for ourselves. We live for Him. Jesus freely gives the love He receives from the Father, so we must do likewise, finding joy in serving others.
We are privileged to be called to build the Kingdom of God and serve the world the Gospel and the saints the grace to grow into maturity.
By the nature of our calling as five-fold ministers, we are called to give away what we receive freely so that others can benefit. Mentoring others in their gifts and callings is intrinsic to our DNA as leaders in the Body of Christ.
Mentoring the gifts, and in this context, the prophetic gift, is essential because our partnership with the Holy Spirit in raising mature and seasoned prophetic ministers opens the way for as many as possible to benefit from the intimate, life-giving, prophetic voice of God.
Cindy Jacobs talks about God's desire for healthy prophetic mentorship in her book "Voice of God: How to Hear and Speak Words from God" by saying:
"I believe I can safely say in a prophetic way that God is looking for fathers and mothers in the faith. He is looking for those who will be willing to pay the price to learn how to mentor and parent the new generation of powerful leaders God is raising across the world." (2016, pp. 103–104)
I love how she articulates God's desire for a healthy mentorship process within the Body of Christ, not simply as a teacher-student or information-oriented relationship, but as a parent-child or relationship-oriented one.
The former releases knowledge, but the latter releases impartation or God’s enabling grace to do the same things.
Prophetic Mentorship
I have identified about five key elements that comprise a healthy mentorship process for someone starting in the prophetic, based on my study of the Bible, the experiences of those who have gone before, and my own experience in mentoring the prophetic in others.
I will briefly summarize the five elements: orientation, identification, discipleship, multiplication, and releasing.
Orientation
When the Holy Spirit highlights and connects an individual to me for discipleship, I first pray and ask God what He is doing in this person and how He wants me to serve them.
Mentorship-type relationships can begin organically or more formally, such as through a school or small group.
The orientation I give people at this stage is an understanding that I am not simply teaching them what I know, but I want them to be able to receive grace from what God has placed on my life, also known as impartation.
Impartation is released by the Holy Spirit when honor and humility, key aspects of our relationship, are present between the mentor and the mentee.
The orientation of impartation is essential because I do not want them to simply know what I know; I want them to know the One that I know, and that I have nothing to give them aside from the grace God has given me for this relationship.
This helps them understand that while God uses people, He is still the source, and ultimately, the Holy Spirit is their primary mentor, and I am His partner in this season of their growth.
This is where healthy boundaries are established to navigate the relationship successfully.
Identification
Identification of gifts and calling for the mentee comes through prayer and revelation by the Spirit. It is easy to identify their natural strengths as a means to pinpoint their gifts, but that is not always an accurate indicator.
Often, God uses people in areas where they are not naturally gifted, because the gifts of God are supernatural and enable us to do things we never thought we could, so that He receives all the glory.
Our gifts and callings are spiritually discerned and developed. For example, God called Moses to speak on His behalf, but he did not speak well. God uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise (see 1 Corinthians 1:27).
As I get to know the individual, I begin to hear from God about their calling and gifts as well as potential character flaws. This is when I ask the Holy Spirit, who is their primary mentor, what area He would like me to pray into and focus on with them.
This is an unfolding process that happens over time as both of you nurture your relationship. All five of these concepts can and do overlap in different seasons.
Discipleship
The primary calling of every leader in the Body of Christ is to be a disciple and make other disciples. Our core purpose as Christians is to be formed in the image of Christ and reveal Him to the world through our surrendered lives.
Callings and gifts have no value if our lives do not reveal Jesus. This is where it can get gritty. This is where I would address character issues that hinder the pure expression of prophetic ministry in the person's life, so that it never becomes about them but is used to glorify Jesus and point people to Him.
An accurate prophetic word can awe people but a life lived with the integrity of Jesus will preach to people more than anything we can ever say. When love is our motive, prophecy opens the door to connecting them with the love of Jesus. If we do not have love, we have nothing (see 1 Corinthians 13).
In Revelation 19:10, the core DNA of prophecy is recorded: "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." (NIV, 1973/2011)
Multiplication
Rabbinic discipleship in the days Jesus walked the Earth was not characterized by teaching their students what they know, it was to reproduce who they are. Discipleship is to make disciplined learners who become what they are learning. You don't truly know anything until it is seen in your life.
Jesus desires multiplication. We are called to watch and learn from Him and to become the living product and expression of who He is. The Holy Spirit came and multiplied the ministry of Jesus through the apostles.
Now He extends this ministry to every Christian who believes in Him and submits to His mission of discipling nations (see Matthew 28:18-20).
I have often taken the people I mentor on trips with me, on ministry assignments, and put them in the position to prophesy to others and learn by doing. It builds their confidence and causes them to step out of the boat and gain experience.
I love giving my students greater avenues of expression in the prophetic and in teaching what they are learning to establish the understanding that we multiply what we are given, and that multiplication is the core fruit of steadfast faithfulness.
Releasing
There comes a time when I am called to release them to the next person who will care for them or into a fuller measure of ministry, depending on the context of the relationship.
The mentoring process could span a few months or a few decades. We are not meant to hold on to them forever for our benefit, but to empower them to keep growing in God and bearing more fruit.
There may be people with whom you are meant to run with for life, but even then, the relationship tends to evolve over time into more of a respected peer even if you continue to hold a position of leadership in their life.
I have had the privilege of ordaining and releasing several people whom I have developed from the ground up into fuller expressions of prophetic ministry, and the majority are thriving and continuing to bear fruit today.
That said, the mentored one has a vital role in being humble, teachable, and pursuing the Lord for all He has for them to be and do in His love. All of these factors working together create a healthy, safe, and fruitful environment for powerful prophetic mentorship.
Building Prophetic Community
Prophetic mentorship thrives in prophetic communities. I want to share with you five key factors in building a healthy prophetic community that can help mitigate abuse and foster a safe environment for learning.
While I cannot claim to be an expert, I want to draw on my own experience in building a prophetic community based on Scripture, as well as what I have observed, taught, and pastored among the fire-branded prophetic people God has privileged me to serve.
Here are the five: teaching, connection, mentorship, accountability, and purpose.
Teaching
The Word of God is a divine activator. When we teach by the empowerment of the Spirit, we create an atmosphere of faith that enables us to receive what we are teaching, and this attracts the grace of God, bringing the concept into a manifested reality in our lives.
We must teach and create the biblical and practical Spirit-designated riverbanks for others to know how to effectively operate in the prophetic.
Connection
You do not have a community without communion. I have seen more people progress faster when they are committed to fostering healthy prophetic relationships. Relationships are the seedbed for all Kingdom growth and advancement.
Therefore, relationships rooted in healthy prophetic expression are the key to a healthy and progressing prophetic community.
Mentorship
As in anything, it is essential to have seasoned individuals who know the ropes and possess the relational intelligence to guide others in what they have learned, without creating clones of themselves.
Instead, they empower those they develop to be the best they can be, in line with who God made them to be.
Accountability
Accountability is necessary because it fosters prophetic discipline, which in turn creates freedom. A major lie of the enemy, especially in the prophetic realm, is that structure is restrictive and quenches the Holy Spirit. That could not be further from the truth.
A healthy wineskin serves the wine; therefore, healthy structure and discipline create a healthy, safe, and free culture of prophetic expression, one that is devoid of chaos and disorder, which breeds confusion and disillusionment.
Purpose
Our why will determine the trajectory of our destiny. When we understand why we are doing something, it spurs our motivation to grow and develop, becoming as effective and fruitful as possible in that specific area.
It is essential to share the rationale behind the prophetic because this will help eliminate much of the confusion surrounding it and provide a clear goal for our growth and development.
Prophetic Mentoring and Community
Healthy prophetic mentoring thrives in the context of a healthy prophetic community. If God has called you to mentor others in the prophetic, remember that it is ultimately the Holy Spirit who guides their development, and we are called to partner with Him in this endeavor.
Additionally, mentorship is about making disciples, not just making someone effective in ministry. If we focus on training them in ministry gifts without simultaneously developing the character of Christ in them, we are setting them up for failure that could not only cost them their ministry but also cause them to turn away from God in extreme circumstances.
As leaders, we must ensure that we model what we teach and that the character of Jesus Christ is evident in our lives and ministries, so that we can say, as Paul did in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." (NIV, 1973/2011)
References
Jacobs, C. (2016). The voice of god: How to hear and speak words from god (Revised and Updated ed.). Chosen Books.