Prophets, artists and musicians all have one thing in common – they need inspiration to work at their best.

Anyone can function to some degree without inspiration, but the results are lackluster, dull and unimaginative, and lack the ability to inspire others.

Being pedantic, prophets are not attempting a performance, and so being ‘at their best’ is perhaps not the best term to use, but the inference is still appropriate. Not everything that comes from the heart of musicians and artists is from God, but much is.

Prophets too, need to make sure that their inspiration is from God and not from a quest for profile, recognition and position.  So when you find yourself in that moment where God is saying nothing to you how do you find inspiration?

Here are a few considerations:

• God may not be saying anything, or showing you anything.  For many that is a difficult area of life or ministry to be in. God is not always speaking, and we are not the sole messengers of God.

• God does not have an obligation to reveal Himself to you! But the good news is that He does, and often. There is a confusing teaching that prophetic people can prophesy at will, which is simply not true.God himself is the source of inspiration and revelation and if He is not showing, the prophet cannot tell!

• It’s not your fault you are seeing nothing, or maybe it is! Sometimes you just need to go to work, dig your field, fix the car and get on with life and like Amos the prophet gathering figs, the word of God will come to you.Sometimes you are not hearing from God because there are things you need to put right. Some of the prophets I know can be mean-spirited, controlling and manipulative. They do this inadvertently and not in an evil or malicious way, but in the way they deal with issues, particularly in times of stress or anxiety.Those character issues are more important than areas of gifting to God, and apply to everyone that you can think of, without exception.

• Sometimes God want you to just come to Him, and rest. You may be clearly exhausted to God, but involvement, profile and a huge number of other psychological elements may be playing in your heart, and your greatest need is not to continue but to rest awhile.

When the moment is right, as always throughout the Scriptures, the Word of God will come. Just be patient. And wait.

If there is one thing that the prophetic ministry will bring both to the Church and to the individual, it is the realisation of the nearness of God.

It is one thing to hear great encouragement about God’s intention to bless, restore or intervene, but to hear the assertion that God is with us, is another thing.

To know that the Lord is our ‘Immanuel’ is profoundly good news, and what courage it brings to the weary heart to know that they are not alone.  Sometimes however, there is another profound revelation that can cause vast oceans of joy to erupt in the human spirit. It is the disclosure of God in the deepest recesses of the heart that He is with you, really with you – and it comes in what I call, “the Jacob-thought”.

Genesis 28 tells us of Jacob’s encounter with God. The Bible tells us that when he had reached ‘a certain place’, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. The next morning he would name that insignificant, nothing-out-of-the-ordinary place, Bethel. In the seemingly insignificant place he found himself in, unawares of the astonishing event that would shortly take place, he took one of the stones there for a pillow and lay down to sleep. As he slept he had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

The next morning, profoundly shaken by his encounter with God, he named the place Bethel (House of God), exclaiming “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it”. And there is the exciting truth that comes when we encounter God, He is there!

How excellent is the truth that can liberate our heart in this day and age, that the Lord may be so very close to us, and we are not aware of it.

The Jacob-thought is so precious. No matter what you face in life, no matter what mountain you face, wall you must climb or discouragement you must conquer – the revelation that God is with you and in your circumstance and you might not be aware of it, is an encouragement from the heart of God Himself.

We walk with the truth that all things work together for our good, that God is with us and that nothing can separate us from His wonderful love – but we also have the great joy of reminding ourselves both in the great times and the hard times, of the Jacob-thought.

Are you aware right now that the Lord is geographically with you, at this very moment!

Remind yourself often of this wonderful truth that the place you are in may look very normal, and unexceptional, but it has the potential to become a ‘Bethel’ to you.

It may not always feel as if God is with you, but no matter who you are, the Lord is in your place and you are not always aware of it!

Think the Jacob-thought!