What happens when the prophetic words that rise up in you, feel more like a wake up call and less like an affirmation?
What happens when the prophetic images that you see, look more like pruning and less like planting?
What happens when the emotions the Lord gifts you are more like mourning and less like joy?
Should these words ever be spoken? Should these visions ever be declared? Should these emotions ever be shared?
If it is a time of peace in the city; yet as you stand watch at the wall an enemy army approaches. Would you sound the alarm or would you remain quiet?
If you notice that your neighbor’s house is built upon a sandy foundation and you know a storm is coming. Would you point this out to them or would you wait to see what happens?
Is it love to remain quiet when the Lord reveals a city is not ready?
Is it love to be silent when the Lord shows you a foundation that is inadequate?
Is it edifying to encourage people to keep building upon a sandy foundation?
Is it encouraging to prophesy about peace when they should be preparing for difficulty?
No, of course not! If a city is not ready, then the alarm must sound. If a house is not ready, then the house must be relocated to a strong foundation.
Consider the words of warning that John the Baptist spoke to the crowd:
You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
Luke 3:7-9
Consider the words of woe that Jesus spoke to the teachers of the law:
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Matthew 23:27-28
Consider the mandate that Paul writes to Timothy:
Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
2 Timothy 4:2-4
Consider the words of awakening that John wrote down in the book of Revelation:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
Revelation 3:1-3
To wake someone up in the middle of the night is sometimes the right thing to do, even if the rude awakening initially upsets the sleeping person.