Onward, Forward, Toward…

Andrew Strom of revivalschool.com sent out an e-mail the other day entitled “Prophetic Depression” that talked alot about the state of today’s prophetic church.

ANDREW STROM - briefly: I have believed for a long time that what has been driving many people into the “Out of church” wilderness is a kind of prophetic ‘depression’ at the state of the church. A lot of them have a prophetic nature and calling - and they feel God’s anguish over the condition of His church very deeply. And they just can’t stand to see some of the things that are happening in the churches. So they are quite simply driven out. I believe this “prophetic depression” is very common. But I also believe that the true remnant of God - if they can just “trust” one another enough to gather together - are about to come into a time of a ‘new wineskin’ that will not grieve the Spirit of God within them. I believe it is time to actively move toward that “new wineskin” right now. Certainly that is where God is personally leading us this year - towards something that I hardly dared hope could exist - but I now believe can be a reality. Anyone else sensing the same thing? … Below is a rather heart-rendering example of ‘prophetic depression’. Perhaps you can relate!…

“PROPHETIC DEPRESSION??”
by Spitfire (-USA).

-A response to Josef Urban’s word - “JUDGMENT is ALREADY HERE!”

Hello Josef. My friend sent me a copy of your post by email…This is a true word and warning from God, in my opinion. I have this same passion and conviction, but it has nearly driven me crazy. I believed that I could cry aloud in the church and everyone would be, as you wrote, “glad to see me”. But, alas, I was rejected fervently and deeply wounded. I went away sad. In fact, I have sunk into a deep depression because I haven’t known what to do with myself. In the midst of it all, my husband got saved on Father’s Day of this year. That has been like a beacon to me that God is still with me. But… my husband wanted to “find” a church for us to get involved in and we did. It’s a brand new upstart church which meets in a local High School, just a handful of people, so they haven’t had time to grow into a full picture of Babylon. Yet, I can see that their vision is the same as every other church.

They’re nice and they have embraced my husband and he loves to go there, but the “lie” is really nagging me. I have wrestled with a lot of confusion, thinking that perhaps I am the crazy, judgmental one. I don’t really say much there. We’ve only been there since about October, so I have just been trying to figure out what God wants from me.

I want to say a word or two about this way of thinking. It has made me think that I am crazy. For 3 years now, I have been struggling with bouts of deep depression, because there are so few who agree. I wrestle with thinking that I am just a nobody. Why should anyone listen to me? I am constantly trying to figure out if I’m “right” or am I just crazy? Recently, I too, had a dream. I believe it was from God to encourage me and to say to me, that I am in agreement with Him. I would like to share it here:

I was in Africa. I was in a large arena. The place was packed with people. It almost looked like the Coliseum of Rome. I was backstage. There was a very official looking African woman there in native garb. She was the leader of some tribe. The event that I was there for was a ceremony of reconciliation between the blacks and the whites. The leader of the whites began to explain to me about the ceremony. He said, “We are here today to celebrate the reconciliation of two nations, but while we are here, we will be rounding up those who have committed crimes against us and punishing them for their crimes in the center ring.” I was appalled! I was thinking to myself, This is a joke! You can’t have reconciliation without forgiveness! I looked over at the African leader and she had tears rolling down her face. I walked over to her and she said, “It isn’t going to work. This whole thing is a joke.” I said to her, “I agree.” She smiled at me and said, “Thank you.” That was the end of the dream.

When I awoke, I knew that it was a dream from the Lord, so I went straight to prayer. God began to minister to me that I was in agreement with Him and he is pleased. He ministered to the rejection I feel for being in such a minority. He helped me see that sometimes, we have to oppose the entire system in order to agree with God. That, that opposing of the church as an institution, is what has almost made me a nut.

I came up under teaching that so exalted those in authority that you would never oppose them. It was considered “rebellion” to disagree.

Now, here I am back in a “church”. And I’m wondering what it is that God is doing. I feel like a worm in a chicken lot. Thanks for your post.

~Feedback is welcome on this topic. Send to- prophetic@revivalschool.com

[~ORIGINAL SOURCE: Sermonindex.net ]
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YES! - You have permission to post these emails to friends or to other groups, etc.

I get the personal (and unpublished e-mails) in my e-mail box everyday of similar people suffering from the prophetic depression. I read the stories of people sick and tired of what has been called the church. I read the horror stories ranging what happened when leaders embraced seeker-sensitive, pragmatic church growth methodologies, Saddleback and Willow Creek’s influence, churches who take up million dollar offerings to give to a prominent televangelist on his 70th birthday, Word of Faith, mega-revivals, agenda armies for an American theo-political Theocracy, disgusted people outraged at the stuff posted over at Elijah List that is deemed as being the ‘modern prophetic’, etc.

While these people are deeply ‘troubled’ at what they are seeing, the unfortunate tragedy is when they express their insights, they are now looked upon as ‘TROUBLE’. The quest for someone to ‘echo’ what they are sensing becomes the eternal weary burden that eventually wears some of them down while consuming others into “remnant ‘rasslin” who lose the ability to distinguish the trees from the forests. All the echo was for was to make sure that the person seeing the observations was not the only one and to also make sure that they were not going bonkers within a mentality of the only person seeing this must be mentally insane.

When combined with a never ending message about a ‘remnant’ and feeling disillusionment over never seeing a remnant, the prophetic depression almost comes full circle to the point where one has a very hard time telling the difference between the prophetic depression of a spiritual nature and the ‘medical’ terminology of depressions of a psychological nature. It is very easy to see because the physical symptoms of withdrawal, imbalance, wilderness experiences, isolation, the need to correct everyone while desiring to see everyone ‘feel’ a grand punishment, etc. can easily be paralleled to patterns within the spiritual life.

Who is considered as being ‘right’ when the prophetically depressed decides to leave (sometimes taking actions in his own hands) and form his ‘new remnant’ calling it ‘THE remnant’ foretold by Scripture while the group he leaves proudly proclaim that his or her leaving is the fulfillment of prophecy concerning the ‘purging of THE remnant’ as described by scripture?