I was a hard skeptic about supernatural perception and healing (except for my own mystical experiences with God of course!) until I was invited to an evangelical Christian prophecy seminar in the summer of 1997 in Regina and was startled awake by the cold water of PROOF spraying in my face. As an eye-witness and recipient of prophecy in action I could not deny it any more than deny gravity.
So I really appreciated the first books in my list, “Growing in the Prophetic” by Mike Bickle, “You May All Prophesy” by Steve Thompson and “Extraordinary Power for Ordinary Christians” by Eric Tammaru a former beat cop. They start from the perspective of the antagonistic doubter and then walk you through some powerful evidence in baby steps then get into their majority content of practical how-to. One other reason Bickle's work is very valuable is because he writes from the perspective of a pastoral administrator, not a prophet, so there's lots of practical advice (and stories!) that will be helpful to pastors not comfortable with, yet reluctantly open to, the prophetic. Tammaru is the most accessible with LOTS of stories but very short. If you find reading to be work then start with him.
After you read those you might want to try “Prophetic Evangelism” by Sean Smith. This guy is a fiery African-American preacher and it sure comes through in his writing. You'll have to bite your tongue here and there at his creativity with English (interesting grammar and unfamiliar terminology), but it is worth it to press through because he has some very practical cut-to-the-quick principles, practices and guides to prayer for the novice. He also includes a lot of gripping stories.
That leaves the more scholarly, thicker and most useful books; “Developing Your Prophetic Gifting” by Graham Cooke, and “Prophets and Personal Prophecy” and “Prophets Pitfalls and Principles” by Dr. Bill Hamon. I'll talk about Hamon's stuff first. These are the 1st and 3rd volumes of a series. I didn't read the 2nd volume because it was too general for my purposes, and then I found that Dr. Hamon gave a synopsis of it anyway in vol. 3 which I appreciated because then I realized I hadn't missed anything not reading vol. 2.
You may find yourself pausing at a couple of Dr. Hamon's eschatological and ecclesiological positions, but then again he doesn't claim to be a Biblical scholar, rather a down-to-earth practitioner of spiritual gifts. So just set those few theological curios aside and tune in to the rubber-meets-the-road practicalities. Really stuffed with solid, practical practices from like 30 or 40 years of non-stop full time ministry in the gifts of the Spirit. His ideas of how prophets and pastors should work together should spark some thinking in the reader who is a pastor wondering how to manage church governance with prophets operating.
The last book on my list, “Developing Your Prophetic Gifting” by Graham Cooke, is the most thorough, well-written and organized. It could really suit for a 1st year Bible college text. If you only read one or two on this list, I would have to recommend Bickle's and Cooke's books, in that order. But its up to you.
Addendum: I also found a very useful old book by a doctor professor from Fuller Seminary named John Wimber. The book is called “Power Evangelism”. If you don't like reading much (hmm well then I guess you may not have made it till here!), take heart because this was made into a video series which your church secretary should easily be able to order in for you to watch. You might even be able to borrow it! (hmmm there should be a unified database of church libraries with interlibrary loaning) Well anyway I really liked Wimber's approach because he came at it scientifically as a respected academic. I believe the Vineyard denomination came out of his work.
That leaves the more scholarly, thicker and most useful books; “Developing Your Prophetic Gifting” by Graham Cooke, and “Prophets and Personal Prophecy” and “Prophets Pitfalls and Principles” by Dr. Bill Hamon. I'll talk about Hamon's stuff first. These are the 1st and 3rd volumes of a series. I didn't read the 2nd volume because it was too general for my purposes, and then I found that Dr. Hamon gave a synopsis of it anyway in vol. 3 which I appreciated because then I realized I hadn't missed anything not reading vol. 2.
You may find yourself pausing at a couple of Dr. Hamon's eschatological and ecclesiological positions, but then again he doesn't claim to be a Biblical scholar, rather a down-to-earth practitioner of spiritual gifts. So just set those few theological curios aside and tune in to the rubber-meets-the-road practicalities. Really stuffed with solid, practical practices from like 30 or 40 years of non-stop full time ministry in the gifts of the Spirit. His ideas of how prophets and pastors should work together should spark some thinking in the reader who is a pastor wondering how to manage church governance with prophets operating.
The last book on my list, “Developing Your Prophetic Gifting” by Graham Cooke, is the most thorough, well-written and organized. It could really suit for a 1st year Bible college text. If you only read one or two on this list, I would have to recommend Bickle's and Cooke's books, in that order. But its up to you.
Addendum: I also found a very useful old book by a doctor professor from Fuller Seminary named John Wimber. The book is called “Power Evangelism”. If you don't like reading much (hmm well then I guess you may not have made it till here!), take heart because this was made into a video series which your church secretary should easily be able to order in for you to watch. You might even be able to borrow it! (hmmm there should be a unified database of church libraries with interlibrary loaning) Well anyway I really liked Wimber's approach because he came at it scientifically as a respected academic. I believe the Vineyard denomination came out of his work.
Happy reading, and trying some stuff!
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