Category: Article History

Copyright 2017 Theresa Harvard Johnson

In The School of the Scribe we have a dictionary that governs the terms we have coined over the years in our programs for scribal ministry. In this article, I am sharing five of the most used terms to bring clarity to what “scribal ministry” really is in this dispensation of the church. They are also explained in great detail in The Scribal Anointing book series (left). I am working on an official dictionary to launch in the near future. I believe every scribe walking in the prophetic could benefit from these definitions. (Side note: If you are a serious prophetic scribe, here’s a huge library of resources to expand your understanding of scribal ministry! Enlarge your scribal arsenal.)

Scribal Ministry: Refers to any believer operating in the MINISTRY (serving others/God) of the scribe in any of its forms – administrative, creative or instructional.

Copyright 2016 Theresa Harvard Johnson

Your life will never, ever be the same again once you get that first prophetic/apostolic book out of you! Listen, my first book was a collection of poetry. When I published it back in 2002, it was a monumental task as I had NO IDEA what I was doing. And no one around me knew how to help as they had not published either. So, I had the honor of being the first one in my church family at the time to publish a book and the first in my immediate family.

Getting that book in my hand was the catalyst that changed the course of my scribal life! Literally, the dam broke… and I began receiving even more instruction from God on publishing and books. Some who are reading this can clearly identify with this testimony. You already know that that first book can impact you from the inside out… and cause you to completely open your eyes to “new life and new possibilities” in God.

Copyright 2017 Theresa Harvard Johnson

Galatians 5:13a ESV, “For you were called to freedom, brothers.”

I do not know when it happened.

But one day recently, I woke up and realized I had a renewed trust in humanity, a greater capacity to love. My heart was so full of emotion that I sat in my bed weeping and writing – trying to capture this beautiful moment with Holy Spirit as my heart came alive.

It’s funny really.

You see, I did not realize my heart was STILL SERIOUSLY BOUND. Yet, there I was feeling tremendous love all around me…., experiencing great breaking and I desperately needed it. What is even crazier – at least for me – is that I could acknowledge my need freely before God in that moment and receive it. 

I discovered, that even after all these years in Christ, that I still had a fortress so high around my heart that I was still subconsciously holding up walls, protecting myself. I was still struggling to trust and live in truth concerning where I was. Why or how that happened is not significant right now. What is important, however, is knowing that God wants our HEART’S FREE and he wants us to experience REAL LOVE – not just from an invisible supernatural place in our understanding. He wants us to touch it from a tangible place in the natural including God-appointed relationships. It’s okay to need and desire Christ-centered love.  Were it not so, He would have stopped at marriage and not continued with demonstrating Jonathan’s love for David, Paul’s love for Timothy or John’s love for Christ. Mark 12:30-31 (the love God, love one another command) has renewed meaning for me this morning.

There are so many people in the earth who have never experienced love or who have never been loved correctly or at all by parents, caregivers, family, spouses or friends. We have a huge part in demonstrating this through Christ! We must SEE THAT or we have missed the point of our calling! Many people have stood unable to express love to others. They have moved through life… starving. I was one of them – but God’s people let HIM use them. You see, a lack of love creates a hunger deep within… that is far greater than any food and our lust for it gives us all the wrong ideas concerning how to fill that hunger, ease its desperate thirst.

Copyright 2017 Theresa Harvard Johnson
(Before reading this, I strongly encourage you to check out my previous blog post, Ordained Too Soon. Also, take a few minutes to read 2 Peter 1, which is in part, the backdrop of this blog post.)

Are you walking in an undeveloped and/or Ineffective ministry calling?

Unfortunately, so many people of God are indeed. They may be mature in their understanding of the Word, in managing life…. but stand in need of understanding the things of the apostolic and prophetic. They have taken on Ephesians 4:11 offices completely ill equipped to operate in them effectively. So much so, that basic evidences of living life in the Spirit can be mistaken or seen as a specific calling when it is simply a sign of life in the prophetic, not necessarily a call to an office or mantle.

The bottom line is this: When God seals a person in a mantle; it is because they are capable of walking it out in its developed and effective place.

In a vision, I held a boiled chicken egg in my hand. It was cooling. When the shell was peeled off, the egg held its shape on one end, and the egg whites began to disintegrate on the other… with the slightest of pressure. Within seconds, I had runny egg whites and clumps of egg flowing through my fingers. The yolk, partially cooked, dripped like sludge with it.

Copyright 2017 Theresa Harvard Johnson

“I do not ordain potential!”

This phrase rocked me as it roared from the mouth of Dr. Kluane Spake on the night of my apostolic commissioning service just over a month ago as she shared with the crowd concerning the call of an apostle. You could have heard a pin drop in the ballroom as everyone seemed to enter slow motion mode – at least for a few seconds – as they bit down on that one, profound statement and the explanation that would follow.

I believe some of us considered this truth: “Ministry callings are about the existing, mature operation of a calling – not simply the signs.” It is important to note, however, that the term ordain does not necessarily mean “ordination” as in a formal ceremony in which someone is bestowed the title of minister that is common among Christ-centered organizations. It is also the act of proclaiming, decreeing and affirming that something fully exists with surety. From this perspective, we can better understand what that aha moment may have been about.