I have heard of people that are prophets, however, I had never been able to understand who a prophet is until I was called by the Lord to be one. I thought that I was not supposed to be a prophet and that the Lord was showing to me the circumstances in my life at the time. I would listen to the Lord speak and wonder; Why is the Lord telling me these things? If you are a person who is able to learn what your calling is, you will understand why the Lord is saying what He is speaking to you at a later time. The Lord will speak to you in the direction of your calling. If you are an apostle, you will most likely hear the Lord tell you about a church in a place that needs a church. A pastor will be told by the Lord about people who are in need of being nurtured. If you are an evangelist, you will hear the Lord speak about who needs to hear the word of God and when. That is often what the Lord is going to speak about when you start hearing His voice. If you are a teacher, the Lord will tell you about how to learn who a teacher is and what a teacher is called to do. That is what the Lord does. If you think that the Lord is not interested in your wellbeing, you will learn that the Lord always comes first. When you go through testing by the Lord to enable you obey His voice, then you will start hearing Him speak about yourself. If you become discouraged at the beginning, you are carnal. The Lord will always speak about Himself first! After you have heard the Lord speak to you about Himself first, then you will hear a lot more things that He will speak to you about His call upon your life. This is what happened to me when I was seeking the Lord about a specific issue in the earlier years. I thought the Lord did not want to help me. At that time, I was without much knowledge. If you are in the Lord, you need patience. You cannot progress without patience. The Lord will give you peace so that the Holy Spirit can work in your life. Some people have a lot of pain in a world that has been brutal to them. They need to be healed by the Lord first before He can enable them do His will. If you fall in this category, you should wait for the Lord’s healing. At that time, the Lord is giving you an opportunity to stay in His presence longer. If you are unable to stay in His presence for longer periods, you will need a gift to be able to do so. This gift is called the gift of patience. Patience is the only way that a minister can be able to understand what the Lord is speaking. If you are impatient, you will most likely end up listening to the enemy speak. You need to understand that the Lord is always speaking! If you act at the time you hear the Lord speak, you might not act in accordance to His will. Most of what the Lord will speak may require interpretation depending on your obedience.
If you have been abiding in obedience to the Lord, you will require less interpretation of what you hear Him speak. Why does the Lord continue to speak in metaphors to some people? It is to train a person to stay in His presence to get the meaning of what He has said. At the council where the Lord was taken, a false witness said, “This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days”. If you are a carnal man, you will think that the Lord meant a physical temple. Actually, Jesus was talking about his body, He was speaking metaphorically to people who were unable to interpret what He had said. The council certainly perceived that Jesus was speaking about a physical temple; they were not supposed to understand what the Lord meant. If they were believers, they would have received the interpretation of what the Lord had said. I had been receiving a lot of metaphors from the Lord that I could not understand until He gave me the gift of interpretation to enable me understand what He had spoken earlier. If you are a minister and you hear the Lord speak about a particular issue, circumstance or person; wait for Him to interpret what He has said through the Holy Spirit. If you are a minister that has spent a lot of time in the Lord’s presence, you may not receive metaphors from Him. Metaphors are one of the ways the Lord trains people to stay in His presence.
The Lord will certainly train a person that He has called for His service. If you are under training, you are not in control. You would not be able to know when the training has intensified or when it is in recess unless you are told by the Holy Spirit. The Lord will always allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you how far in the training you are! If you are a baby in the Lord, you will need milk. When you abide in the Lord’s teaching you will grow and will not need milk anymore. This is what is called being nurtured by the Holy Spirit for the Lord’s service. When you have been in the Lord’s training, you will eventually be commissioned to go and do His will. If you have been called to be an apostle, you will find that after you have been trained by the Lord, you will certainly plant a church. If you have been called to be a teacher, the Lord will train you on how to speak in a congregation. I received such a vision from the Lord even before I could hear Him speak! I wondered why the Lord was showing me a vision concerning me teaching a group of people!? It did not make sense to me then! I needed to wait for the Lord to interpret, which depended on my obedience to Him. I am now able to teach people for hours on end about God by the power of the Holy Ghost. That is what a prophet does. If you are a prophet and you are unable to teach people about the Lord, then you are a prophet that is still in training. It does not mean that you are not worthy before the Lord, you just need to be patient and abide in obedience to Him. The Lord has a time for every person, some people require less time in training than others. I was called by the Lord 8 years ago yet I am writing my first book this year. If I had begun to write this book then, it would be full of metaphors and would be of no benefit at all. I have waited patiently for the Lord to tell me when He wants what done. The Lord is always speaking about His will and if you abide in Him, it is difficult to be deceived by the enemy. If I had decided to write this book at an earlier date, the Lord would not have accepted me to do so because I have been in training for over 8 years. If you have just received the Lord’s calling, you need to abide in obedience to Him and be patient.