“But as for you, O man of God…pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” (I Timothy 6:11)

The power of hearing God for others and delivering those words to others had just moved from being an interest to a passion for me in 2006.

That is why the opportunity to learn from one of the pre-eminent prophetic equippers of our time was simply too good to pass up.

Add to that the fact that he was not known for teaching outside of his own ministry framework…I just had to be at the Prophetic Equipping School at Catch the Fire, Toronto.

Then came the much-anticipated opening session.

As a newbie to prophetic ministry, I was expecting to hear quite a bit about how to develop and grow in the gift.

Much to my utter disappointment, his three hour talk had no reference whatsoever to a technique or a text that could even remotely be classified as a teaching on growing in the prophetic.

Instead, John Paul Jackson spoke passionately about why we needed to focus on developing our character above everything else.

He shared how he was once part of a group of 25 or so well-known prophets who had a reputation for being extremely accurate. They were in high demand all over the body of Christ.

Yet, at the time of speaking, two decades plus down the road, only 4 of them were still left standing.

What happened to the other 21?

Their gift was still intact, but their reputation was not. Most of them had fallen into one form of sin or another.

That is why he wanted those of us who were just getting started in prophetic ministry to get this truth seared into our spirits right off the bat.

“Focus on developing your character first and foremost. Keep it in the forefront at all times. It is the key to keep on growing in the prophetic.”

To be perfectly honest with you, I didn’t really get it that day.

Today, seven years later, I am beginning to appreciate the reason why John Paul Jackson took three hours to drill it into us.

Sad to say but over the years, we have indeed seen a number of high profile gifted men and women of God who moved mightily in supernatural gifts–be it healing, miracles or prophecy–fall from grace.

There was nothing wrong with their gifting (charisma in the strictest translation of the Greek word). Their downfall was directly related to the upkeep of their character…or lack thereof.

Your gifts will take you places, even within the Church. But the gifts of the spirit cannot be sustained for long on the tree of life without the fruit of the spirit. Therefore cultivate the soil of character.

This is why after a detailed discourse on the gifts (Charismata) in I Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul says:“I will show you a still more excellent way”and goes on to stress the importance of love (Character).

Yup, Character trumps Charisma.

May the Holy Spirit sear this truth into your spirit forever.