Cultivating a prophetic spirit

Aaron Leatherdale - Rapper
Follow Aaron on Twitter: aleatherdale
Website & personal blog: aaronleatherdale.org
Aaron grew up in Prince George, BC, Canada and moved to IHOP in May 2007. His passion and desire is to serve the Lord through prayer and fasting and to preach the love of Christ to the nations of the earth.


Cultivating a Prophetic Spirit
All believers can cultivate and develop a prophetic spirit. It's a journey into the thoughts and emotions of God. When I think about growing in the prophetic I think about the Sermon on the Mount. In this famous sermon, Jesus lays out the principles of basic Christianity – if we follow these principles we will have a bright spirit and hearts that are alive.

One of the primary ways to prophesy is through music. Music is something that the human spirit connects with and if  musicians and singers are faithful to keep their hearts pure and sensitive to God, they will be able to minister with maximum impact. If musicians are clean and free before God, attentive to His voice, they will be clear channels for the Spirit of God to flow through.

The verse that has been stirring me lately is Matthew 6:6. Jesus encourages us to go into the secret place, away from the eyes of men, and pray to the Father. I believe this is key to growing in the prophetic. As we consistently sit before God and meditate on His word, we will learn to hear His heart and hear what He is saying and doing. Jesus is the greatest example of a Man who waited on the Father. In John 5, Jesus said, “the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do...the Son also does in like manner.” We too must live a life of constant prayer and abiding in the Vine if we want to speak words that are straight from the Father. We must value the time spent with Christ talking and listening to Him and pouring over the Scriptures. A verse that has been a comfort to me through the ups-and-downs of living a Sermon on the Mount lifestyle is Jeremiah 15:16. Jeremiah says, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” Jeremiah treasured and esteemed the words of God and counted them as his chief joy. As we posture our hearts before the Lord, like Samuel in the temple sleeping before the Ark of the Covenant, we too will hear His word and be able to faithfully declare it to others.

David, the man after God's heart, knew how to hear the heart of God and express it through music. The canonized Psalms are inspired by the Holy Spirit and are filled with emotions and passion. When I think of prophetic musicians and singers, I think of young David as a teenager spending days and nights in the wilderness tending sheep – growing in skill on his instrument and growing in favor with God. When King Saul was being tormented by a demon, his servants searched the land for a musician to stand before him and play. Only the best would stand before the king of Israel. After looking through the land they found David. The Bible says he was “skillful in playing”. Cultivating skill is an important part of developing a spirit of prophecy. If we are skillful on our instruments we will be able to more articulately communicate what the Lord is saying when the Holy Spirit begins to move. David had spent long hours perfecting his craft and when the Lord gave him the opportunity to stand before a king, he played his instrument and shifted the atmosphere. 1 Samuel 16 says that when David played Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him.

As the Lord continues to raise up a global worship movement, it's so important that musicians give themselves to both skill on their instruments and lifestyles of prayer and Bible meditation. Like David tending the sheep, God is raising up many young prophetic voices who will trumpet his word through song.  

Bring me a musician. Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him (Elisha). 2 Kings 3:15

©2011 Aaron Leatherdale