To find freedom in Christ, we must fully apply the truth of God’s Word to our lives. Prophetic teacher Sterling Sawyer of Liberty Tree Ministries believes he has found a way to work the Word deeper into our being for greater freedom and lasting growth.
“Each of us has to come to God and learned to listen to His voice,” Sawyer says on the Charisma Connection podcast. “Seek that voice, and discern whether it is or is not God. And then once we receive that word, we need to work it on through our being.”
Sometimes even though the truth is from God, it just doesn’t take.
“We all have seen Christians who have received some truth,” Sawyer says. “They seem to get it, but then later they lose it. The revelation, the freedom, just don’t stick. And this has happened to us all. It’s happened to me. There have been times when I intellectually received something, but it didn’t make it into any depth, or maybe I more emotionally received it, but it didn’t really stick.”
Sawyer points to John 8:32, which says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” In the first episode of his three-part Charisma Connection podcast series, Sawyer lays out the framework for his “prophet, priest and king” model of growth.
“God gave truth to set you free, but sometimes you and I just do not know how to apply the truth,” he says. “This is where I have seen the ‘prophet, priest and king paradigm’ illuminate the way God intended the parts of our being to work together and flow with His truth, so you can see it, be it and do it!”
Sawyer teaches that, like King David of the Old Testament, we are all prophets, priests and kings. In the first series’ episode, he teaches that this kind of prophet is different from the one who speaks a “Thus saith the Lord” word to a congregation.
“The prophet must seek, catch and discern God’s Word,” Sawyer says. “He or she must then set the Word apart or sanctify it, as well as put it into use by meditating and praying on it.”
Each of the three functional roles is important in the Christian life. Sawyer believes God has given the prophet, priest and king model so Christians can be free. Download the “Prophet, Priest and King paradigm” chart here.
Click here to listen to the first episode of the Prophet, Priest and King podcast series.
