Foot Washing: Prophesy that Soars and Ensnares
Author: Andrew Comiskey
March 20, 2024
‘I will pour out on you a
spirit of grace and supplication…
We will look upon the One
we have pierced and will mourn as one grieves for an only child…
On that day, I’ll open a
fountain to cleanse you from sin and impurity;
on that day, I’ll banish
the idols from the land…
On that day, I’ll
remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land…
On that day, every
prophet will be ashamed of his prophetic vision.
He will say, “I am not a
prophet, I am a farmer.”
When asked about the
wounds on his body, he will answer:
“These wounds I was given
at the house of my friends’ (Zechariah 12:10-13:6).
I
came broken and cast down to the Vineyard’s pastor conference that year. Annette
and I had been asked to leave our Vineyard due to challenging the senior pastor
over his sexual immorality. Ever prescient John Wimber knew his leaders needed
extraordinary encouragement, so he invited the Holy Spirit to release pastors
to prophesy to each other (‘When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied,’
Num. 11:25).
I immersed
myself in that river of life. A current of truthful edifying words coursed over
me as leaders I did not know distilled my call: a woman described me as ‘a
one-star general of purity,’ another man, ‘you have wrestled and you limp,’ yet
another, ‘you suffer on behalf of others who suffer more.’
Wow.
These leaders neither knew me nor my wound. But their words welled up from the
heart of God to this thirsty soul. ‘Where that river flows, everything will
live…’ (Ez. 47:9) Utterly true: I came alive again to my identity and purpose. An
authentic prophetic stream released from the Holy Spirit to build up the Body released
me.
A year
later, I had another experience of prophecy that made me sick. Wimber invited a
few ‘prophets’ from Kansas City to address Vineyard Anaheim. At first, I liked
it: Mike Bickle corrected our sunny and superficial California morality, or
lack thereof. (Little did I know that Bickle’s Midwest world was rife with immorality.)
What
threw me was Paul Cain, the grand ‘prophet’ who said nothing substantial but managed
to rally a bunch of idiots around him who longed for the ‘oracle’ to speak the
defining word. Yuck! We knew better. John knew better! (Well, everyone can make
a mistake).
God
doesn’t trump up a man, a person associated with a gift. God gives gifts freely
from His Spirit through anyone to accomplish His will, for ‘He gives gifts
freely, as He determines’ (1 Cor. 12:11). God may deliver through Balaam, an
ass, but He wasn’t coming through one like Cain.
I
remember wasting a couple of nights as 5000 people hoped that Paul would call him
or her out to declare clairvoyant minutiae about one’s personal life (sideshow,
anyone?) then pronounce with a flourish some grandiose future in which he or she
would usher in revival, Jesus’ return, etc.
Wow. A
dead sea in contrast to the prophetic stream released at the Vineyard’s pastor
gathering. The emperor had no clothes. At this time, scripture scholar Jack
Deere came on board with both the Vineyard and the Kansas City prophets. He reflects
astutely, poignantly on how his (Deere’s) sinful drive for power gave Paul Cain
full sway; Cain ‘prophesied’ that Deere would eclipse Wimber and be as great as
his own bloated self.
Bless
the humbled Jack Deere. I recalled him in the early nineties, surrounded by the
KC prophets––an arrogant man who was barely interested in anyone who didn’t amplify
himself. His sin magnetized men like Cain who took Deere and others captive. Jack
suffered greatly; his own story reveals the bad fruit of false prophets (Matt. 7:15-23).
I honor Jack Deere for telling the truth of his repentance from prophetic
wickedness. Please read this cautionary witness.
The
stream of prophesy Mike Bickle sought to steward was mixed. I champion the good;
I recall a recent meeting with a Catholic friend at a coffee joint in KC and a fine
IHOP man––Ed Hackett––greeted me with a wave of prophetic love that nourished us
both. Hackett’s finely tuned eye of heart builds others up prophetically,
wherever he goes. He needs no title. His continual welling up is exemplary of
true prophecy and precisely why we must fight for this most excellent gift, one
St. Paul implores us to seek and exercise above all others (1 Cor. 14:1-3).
But
Mike’s refusal to discipline his sons and daughters—many of them deeply divided
by insecurities, sexual sins, and chemical addictions—has so polluted the good
gift of prophesy that it appears God is capping the flow at IHOPKC. Jesus IS cleansing
His house of impure prophesy.
Our
task remains: reclaiming what is precious from the putrid. That requires a rare
blend of careful oversight and commitment to the freedom of the prophetic gift.
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