What Is A Prophetic Act?
Every societal group develops its own culture and creates language associated with it, including denominations and spiritual movements. As examples, the Charismatic Movement often used the phrase “slain in the spirit,” referring to a person who fell down while being prayed for. Pentecostals and charismatics sometimes speak of God “moving in our midst.” Ever wonder what someone who has zero understanding of God envisions when hearing this? They probably wonder what type of “moves” He was making. Or perhaps, “Where did He go?”
The stream of Christianity I was raised in spoke of death as “crossing Jordan’s chilly tide.” I’m sure the average unchurched individual understood that! They probably thought someone had just returned from “the Holy Land.”
Most of our religious idiomatic phrases grow from beliefs and teachings emphasized in our denomination or movement. As I said, all groups do it, not just us religious folk. I recall hearing for the first time that someone was really “cool,” which, of course, had nothing to do with their body temperature, or that a “bad” person was actually good, outstanding or first-rate, as in “a really bad drummer.” What we often fail to consider is that those not part of our movement don’t always understand our lingo.
Those of us in my stream (there’s another one!) speak of “prophetic acts.” The planting of the 300 arrowheads fits into this category. Today, I want to explain what we mean by a prophetic act and why we use the phrase.
First, let’s look at the meaning of prophecy/the prophetic in a general sense. In our culture today, most people think of prophecy only in the context of predicting the future, but this is not the complete biblical meaning. The Hebrew word for prophecy is naba, which means “to speak or sing by inspiration.”(1) Some lexicons define it as “a bubbling up” (from our spirit); a “pouring forth of words,” or simply “to be inspired.”(2) In simple terms, to be prophetic is to hear or discern what God is saying; prophesying is the communicating of it. This “prophetic” information can be what God is saying about the future or the present. John the Baptist, referred to by Jesus as a great prophet (Luke 7:28), didn’t primarily predict the future, but declared what God was saying about the present.
However, releasing the prophetic is not always done through words; at times, it is accomplished through actions. A prophetic “act” is simply performing an action God has instructed us to do. Like naba in general, the act can be pointing to the future, or related to now. In Acts 21:10-11, a prophet named Agabus used a prophetic act to picture the future - Paul being bound by Jews in Jerusalem. In Exodus 14:16-21, Moses was instructed by God to hold his rod out over the Red Sea, causing it to part, an act obviously relating to the present.
Prophetic acts are sometimes used by God to picture a spiritual truth. God also uses them to release His power. Often they are a combination of both. Moses’ extended rod was a picture of God’s authority being released, but was also a prophetic act that released spiritual power.
Where prophetic acts are concerned, the act in and of itself does not release power, of course, and sometimes seems to make no sense. If you or I take a staff to the ocean and extend it over the water, I promise you the waters will not part! Only when done in obedience to Holy Spirit do they release His power. When He has given the instruction, however, spiritual power is released, impacting the natural realm.
When Moses held up his staff at Rephidim, it pictured Yahweh’s authority over the battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:9–13) and released spiritual power into the natural realm. When Moses held up the rod, Israel prevailed; when he lowered it due to fatigue, Amalek prevailed. Morale for the Israelite soldiers wasn’t the issue. They were busy fighting, not watching Moses, and probably didn’t even see the rod being raised and lowered. But the prophetic act of raising it was releasing authority and power in the heavenlies, the spirit realm, and the power was boomeranging back to earth, giving victory.
Moses striking the rock in Exodus 17:6 is another example of a prophetic act. With this rod of authority, he struck the rock, and water gushed forth. God chose not only to give Israel water through this prophetic act, but also to picture Christ being smitten in order to release His living water.
In 2 Kings 13:14–19, Elisha was dying, and King Joash came to him for advice one last time. The Assyrians were surrounding Israel, and he was desperate for some instructions from the prophet. Elisha performed a prophetic act: “Get your bow and arrows,” he said. Then he and the king put their hands on the bow together, shooting the arrow toward the enemy’s camp. Elisha then said, “That’s the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance, King. Now take these arrows and strike the ground.”
The king was being tested. His actions were going to be prophetic. Not knowing what the prophet was up to, he took the arrows and struck the ground three times. Elisha was grieved and angry. “Three times you will have victory over your enemies, and then they will conquer you,” he said. “You should have struck with the arrows at least five or six times, then you would have conquered them!”
“People were healed in Scripture through prophetic acts. Jesus made clay with saliva, rubbed it in a blind man’s eyes, and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam (John 9:6–7). Naaman the leper was told to dip in the Jordan River seven times (2 Kings 5:10–14); he didn’t like the instructions, but God offered no “Plan B.” God had chosen to work in this way, and only obedience to His chosen method would work.
Why did Holy Spirit require the Ekklesia to take 300 arrowheads to Cape Henry, then Red River Meeting House, then bury 6 of them in each state? It seems obvious that He wanted to make a statement regarding the Native Americans. We must honor their role in our land, and God plans to include them in what He is about to do in America. Other prophetic acts are taking place in the actual planting of these arrowheads. God is leading teams to bury them in places that represent revival, the efforts of past generations, the shedding of innocent blood, government, borders, and more. As these instructions are obeyed, His authority is being activated, and power is being released.
Pray with me:
Father, so often You require some sort of action along with our prayers. Obedience AND faith are required to see Your will accomplished. Yet, our need to understand everything with our natural minds often gets in the way of spiritual obedience. Remind us that we must have faith like that of a child. If You say get out of the boat, we will get out of the boat. If You say, hit a rock, we will hit the rock. And when You say take a bin filled with arrowheads to a beach in Virginia, then take it to Kentucky, then mail them all over the country and bury them, we will do so! We are willing and obedient, and we will eat the fruit of the land (Isaiah 1:19).
Thank You for the teams of people praying and burying these arrowheads in all the states. Thank You for the insights You are giving them as they do so, and for showing them where You want it done. We are conducting a Holy Spirit-initiated, Ekklesia-implemented, every state included, national prophetic act. You must love this! And we are confident that the generational, racial, and overall synergy being created in the spiritual realm by this obedience and agreement is incredible.
On the strength of this, we declare now that America is secured, and Your purposes are being established. Your foreword is being moved forward. Evil is being overthrown, Haman will hang on his own gallows (Esther 7:10). The corrupt and political attempts to prosecute Trump and those who challenged the 2020 elections will be exposed and overturned. Justice will return to our land. The progressives, socialists, communists, and leftists will not succeed in their attempts to destroy the America You created and take over our land. A fearless Supreme Court with backbone and constitutional integrity will rise up. A shaking is coming that will dismantle evil, overthrow corruption in the government, and bring a biblical reset to America. These things will not be stopped, and America will be saved!
We decree them in the name of Jesus.
Our decree:
We decree that the prophetic acts taking place across America over the past few weeks will accomplish everything God intended.
Click on the link below to watch the full video.
James Strong, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), ref. no. 5012.
Spiros Zodhiates, The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, KJV, (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1984) p. 1611.