Always Prophesy like the Little Red Haired Girl

Always Prophesy like the Little Red Haired Girl
(The Little Red-Haired Girl from the 2015 Peanuts Film) 
                        I was biking with my nine year old daughter after watching the latest Charlie Brown film when she surprised me by saying, "Papa, the little red-haired girl is a prophet just like you. Right Papa?

         Everyone in the Peanuts film has the tendency to be very harsh on poor Charlie Brown. Lucy always pulls the football away when he wants to kick it and he feels like a big LOSER. But at the end of the movie, to his own amazement, the little red haired girl wants to be his pen pal.
         She wants to be his pen pal because he is: honest, funny, smart, sincere, and caring. Her list of sincere and truthful compliments leave Charlie Brown and the moviegoer with a heart-warming feeling. My daughter equated this heart-warming experience to all of her meetings she has had with prophets. Prophets speak God's truth in love and bring the best out of people.
         Everyone looked down upon little Zacchaeus as a thief since he was the chief of all tax collectors (Luke 19:1-10). Yet, when Jesus saw him, he saw something very different. Jesus went and ate with him. This led to a radical change so that the chief of thieves became an extremely generous giver. Prophetic ministry changes lives because it enables people to see themselves as God sees them.
         At amusement parks there are often some funny mirrors which warp one's figure. People love to see themselves get an oblong head or long body and little feet. What may be amusing for a moment is tragic if people have a permanently warped self-image.  When encountering Jesus, his words change our identity and our destinies.
         After the thief crucified next to Jesus spoke to him, Jesus said that he was going to go to paradise with him (Luke 23:42). After an insane demonized man encountered Jesus, he became an evangelist to over ten cities (Luke 8:26-39). After Saul encountered Jesus, he changed from being one who destroyed the church to one of its greatest champions (Acts 9:1-19). God gives great honor to those who may be despised and seen as foolish in the world (1 Cor. 1:27-28).
         My mentor, Prophet Bruce Foster, recalls how in 1993, a prophetess told him that he was a prophet and someone free from reproach (guilt and shame). His reaction was, "That was very kind of her, but I am an electrician and not a prophet. Furthermore, I know I am full of reproach."
         God was speaking to him about his potential and not his circumstances. God was speaking of Bruce Foster in 2016 and not the Bruce Foster in 1993. We always prophesy first into people's potential and not into their sins and failures.
         God once asked Ezekiel if a valley full of dead bones could live again (Ezekiel 37). As the prophet prophesied, the dry bones started connecting to each other and becoming human bodies once again. When he was done prophesying "breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army" Ezekiel 47:10 (NIV).
         A man walked up to me at a church once and said, "You are not going to tell everyone my sins, are you?"
         To which I responded, "No, I don't know all of your sins and second of all that is not the primary goal of prophecy. Prophecy helps people see themselves the way that God sees them so they can become what God wants them to become."
          So next time you hear someone prophesying or you may step out to prophesy yourself, think about that little red haired girl who spoke words of life over Charlie Brown. Follow her example because prophecy should be always framed in a way that strengthens, encourages, and comforts others (1 Cor. 14:3). Always prophesy into people's potential and not their weaknesses and failures. Then you will truly be sounding like God because he is a God who "...gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not" (Romans 4:17).

1. Picture of the Little Red-Haired Girl comes from http://peanuts.wikia.com/wiki/Little_Red-Haired_Girl



1. Picture of the Little Red-Haired Girl comes from http://peanuts.wikia.com/wiki/Little_Red-Haired_Girl



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