Frustration can be an enemy or an ally of any prophetic ministry. If left unchecked, it colors our thinking, and infects the word we have, and gives us a skeptical perspective on the life of the church. If we are to represent God’s heart and be good servants, we must learn to master our frustration. We need the understanding and the grace of God to move our hearts rather than our irritation and dissatisfaction.
As dangerous as frustration is, it can also be incredibly fruitful. I’m not afraid of frustration because it is a vital part of a person’s spiritual development. How we handle our, and others, frustration is important. Every one of us must handle our frustration wisely and righteously. We cannot shoot our mouth off and blurt out any thought that comes into our head. Instead, we must let frustration develop us. We may be frustrated with our ministry, God is in that frustration, trying to change the way we live.
Frustration has a cutting edge, like at double edged sword. It is OK for us to be frustrated with where our church is, with what the vision is, with the number of meetings, and the rest of the complaints I hears regularly in church life. But we must recognize that there is the other edge to frustration: when we feel frustrated, it’s probably because God is frustrated with where we are in our character. God is exceedingly direct. We feel frustrated, and then he reveals the source-a stagnant prayer life, a lack of worship, a decrease in love, a habitual sin. We want to talk about our frustration, but he wants to deal with the one we’re causing him. The Holy Spirit will speak to us in the midst of frustration about our personal walk with God.
At least frustrated people care about something. I would rather teach in a room of 50 frustrated people than 500 apathetic ones.
Rejection is an issue that often walks hand in hand with frustration. When we feel rejected, we must open our hearts so that the love of God can flow in. Many prophetic people can feel rejected because they do not have any relationships of worth or value. Prophets are often accused of being weird, temperamental, emotional, and abnormal. In some places where there is a great ignorance of the role of the prophet, that type of behavior is seen as normal for prophetic people. This is a bit of an unfair reputation, as prophets have not cornered the market in abnormality; there are many non- prophetic ministries that seem to fluctuate between the oddball and the highly entertaining.
Prophecy is about restoring people’s dignity and self-respect, to do so, we have to be restored ourselves. I hate the enemy because he strips that away from people. He steals dignity and self-respect and creates a sense of disillusionment in our hearts about ourselves. He creates a sense of I’m not worthy, I’m no good, I can’t do anything. He steals every shred of self-worth he can.
Perhaps no more obvious example of this exists than in the world of advertising. Looking spiritually at the ad industry leads me to believe it borders on the demonic a lot of the time, because it is geared to making people feel dissatisfied with their lives. That’s the whole point of it: advertisers have to make people unhappy with an aspect of their lives, and if they can achieve that, there is a good chance that people will buy their product. Advertisers create dissatisfaction about our lifestyles, our figures, our looks, our clothes, our possessions, and countless other things. Into that vacuum, they put their own product, hoping to entice us to purchase it and fill the void that they created in the 1st place. They trade on our insecurities and our need to be loved and valued.
The enemy strategy works on that same principle. He is geared to make us feel dissatisfied with who we are. He wants to separate us from God, the church, our friends, and any useful function we may adopt in furthering the Kingdom. If he can get us to hate ourselves and tell our hearts that we are of no account and, as such it doesn’t matter if we don’t go to the meeting or pray or worship, then apathy will follow. If we allow apathy into our lives, then it will hold the door open to unbelief, condemnation, self-loathing, bitterness, anxiety, fear, misery, and selfishness. All these things spell passivity, a passive acceptance of life and a demoralized outlook on the things of God. The prophetic is geared to challenge this whole issue, as it is based in the truth of God’s love, grace, kindness, and mercy.