There are two major categories of Prophetic Stewardship: Stewardship of the gift of prophecy and stewardship of prophetic words. Stewarding the gift of prophecy is the receiving, practicing, and developing of speaking the words we believe to be from God. In short, we call this prophesying or giving a prophetic word.
Stewarding prophetic words is the process of partnering with God in a specific prophetic word towards the fulfillment of that prophetic word. This partnership creates relational movement from prophetic word spoken to prophetic word fulfilled.
The following keys are not new but have been a foundational part of the culture of the people of God since creation. Each of these keys are found in scripture and can easily be applied in our individual and communal walks with God.
Key 1: Record your prophetic words
All you need to do is whip out your smartphone, open your recording app, push record and voila! Many believers have prophetic words recorded on audio devices. I have about 50. Others in their journals. Many have scattered pieces of paper stuck in various pages of their bibles. This is a great start but most likely won’t take you where you need to get to. Why? Because it is too easy to lose track of them. If I had a penny for every time I’ve heard someone say, “I have my prophetic words in a recording somewhere,” or, “I have them written down in my journals. I need to track those down.” Taking the time to do this step is simply the foundational step to going to the next level of stewarding prophetic words. You must first have the word recorded.
Key 2: Document your prophetic words
Habakkuk 2:2
And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.”
Documenting prophetic words is an ancient practice that is easier to do now than ever. But there is a difference between recording and documenting your prophetic words. I don’t want to play semantic games but recording a prophetic word is strictly pushing record on your audio device. Even if you are able to write down some key words while someone is giving you a prophetic word. Recording does not necessarily mean documenting. Documenting prophetic words deserves its own key because you can record and never document in writing.
I am using the word document here to mean turn your audio prophetic word into a written prophetic word, AKA transcribe your prophetic word. An audio file or a scribbled note is a start but usually won’t be sufficient to carry you through the long journey. If you think about it, people of faith have been writing down words from God since Adam. Writing down your words from God gives you the opportunity to use other keys that you would not have the chance to do if you do not write it down. If you do write it down, you will open the door to your ability to see the prophetic word with your own eyes as you read it on paper or computer document.
You will be able to both hear and see your prophetic word. If you take the time to complete these two keys for at least one prophetic word, why not go ahead and organize your prophetic words into one document.
Key 3: Organize your prophetic words
Now that you’ve taken the time to record and document your prophetic words, organize them into one document. If you are new to prophetic words and at this time have a short number of them, you won’t have as much work to do as the rest of us. That’s good news by the way. The goal is not to have the most prophetic words, the goal is to partner with God in the process of fulfillment of your prophetic words.
Up to this point, these prophetic word stewardship keys are focused more on the initial administration that make the rest of the keys easier to apply. Too many believers do not have a value for undertaking keys 1-3 and therefore do not open up the opportunity for themselves to better steward their prophetic words. But that’s not you, Beloved! Create for yourself the ability to read your prophetic words on paper or a computerized document.