By Andrew Williams
Series: The Year of the Prophet- Month 1: The Anatomy of a Prophet
Week 4: The Nature and Responsibility of the Office
Anchor Scripture: “See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” — Jeremiah 1:10 (NKJV)
The Teaching
When we think of the Prophet, we often think of someone who builds up and encourages. But when God commissioned Jeremiah, He gave him a six-fold mandate, and four of those six tasks were destructive. Before the Prophet can build or plant, they must root out and pull down.
This is the “demolition” phase of the prophetic office. Just as a gardener cannot plant prize-winning roses in a field choked with thorns and poisonous weeds, God cannot build His Kingdom on a foundation of religious tradition, secret sin, or demonic strongholds. The Prophet is God’s spiritual bulldozer. They are sent into a situation to identify and remove anything that was not planted by the Heavenly Father.
Rooting out deals with the “hidden” things—the roots of bitterness, the ancient mindsets, and the systemic errors that have been growing underground for years. Pulling down deals with the “structures”—the high places of pride and the walls of religious resistance that stop the flow of the Spirit. This work is rarely popular. People are often attached to their “weeds” because they’ve lived with them for so long. To be a Prophet is to have the courage to tell the truth about what needs to go so that what God wants to do can finally come to life.
Prophetic Insight
If you have a prophetic calling, you will often “see” the weeds before you see the flowers. You walk into a room and your eyes are immediately drawn to what is out of order, what is hypocritical, or what is hindering the presence of God. This is not because you are a “critical” person; it is because you carry the Jeremiah mandate. You are sensing the “unauthorized” plants in God’s garden. However, you must ensure that you are rooting out by the Spirit and not by your own frustration. The goal of pulling down is never to leave a hole; it is to clear the ground for the “building and planting” that is to follow.
The Activation
Ask the Holy Spirit today: “Lord, what is growing in my garden that You did not plant?” Look for habits, mindsets, or even relationships that are choking your spiritual growth. Once you identify one, “root it out” through a specific act of repentance or a firm decision to change. Then, pray for your church or city. Ask God to show you one “stronghold” (a pattern of thinking or behavior) that needs to be “pulled down” so that the Kingdom can advance.
Daily Prayer: Lord God, I thank You that You are the Master Gardener. I yield myself to the Jeremiah mandate today. Give me the discernment to see what needs to be rooted out and the courage to pull down every stronghold that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. Clear the ground of my heart and my community. Let everything that is not of You be removed, so that Your Kingdom may be built and planted in its place. Amen.
