The Life of a Kingdom Scribe: Part 1

Why I Can't Tell You When the Next Conference Will Be

“We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” Proverbs 16:9 NLT

“When are you going to do another conference?” It is one of the questions I am asked most often. In fact, recently two different people asked me the exact same question within about an hour of each other. My answer is always the same: I honestly don't know.

That response surprises people because they assume the next conference is simply a matter of choosing a date, securing a venue, and announcing it. What many don't realize is that I don't have the luxury of deciding those things on my own. I have complete peace that God has not given me another conference assignment yet, and I have no intention of creating one simply because people are asking. I learned a long time ago that when your assignment comes from heaven, only heaven has the authority to release the next one.

Looking back, I can now see what I could not see while I was living through it. God instructed me to host five spiritual warfare conferences over five years. At the time, I thought I was simply teaching. I believed He was building a conference ministry. What I didn't realize was that every conference, every lesson, every battle between conferences, and every kingdom principle He revealed was actually preparation for something much larger. He wasn't merely training me to speak. He was training me to write.

All of those years eventually became the foundation for The Gatekeepers: When Women War. As I look back now, I can clearly see that the conferences were never the destination. They were the classroom. Every season of warfare, every revelation, every victory, and every difficult lesson became part of the storyline that would eventually shape one of the most significant books I have written in The Chronicles of Warfare series. It was through those years that God expanded the narrative beyond spiritual warfare alone and introduced readers to kingdom identity, authority, rank, armor, and the responsibilities that come with walking at a higher level in the Kingdom of God.

One of the beautiful things about fiction is that it allows readers to experience profound biblical truths in a way that feels natural. Instead of simply reading theological concepts, they walk alongside characters who are learning those same lessons in real time. Kingdom mysteries become conversations. Spiritual principles become lived experiences. What could feel intimidating in a classroom suddenly becomes relatable within a story. While readers believe they are simply enjoying a novel, the Holy Spirit is quietly teaching them how to recognize warfare, how to exercise authority, and how to take spiritual territory. Entertainment becomes discipleship without sacrificing biblical depth.

This is one of the unique responsibilities of being a Kingdom scribe, especially a prophetic Kingdom scribe. We are not merely recording information. We are stewarding revelation. We write what heaven entrusts to us, often years before the world understands why it matters.

I began writing in 2010, and my first book was released in 2012. As I look around today, I am watching conversations take place on podcasts, social media, and in mainstream Christian circles about subjects I wrote about over a decade ago. At the time, many of those ideas were unfamiliar to readers. Today, they have become part of the larger conversation within the Body of Christ. That has taught me something important about the prophetic scope of a Kingdom scribe. Sometimes God allows us to write ten, fifteen, or even twenty years ahead of the moment when the Church is ready to fully receive what He has already spoken.

Even within our own intercessory team, whenever God assigns us a new battle or strategic prayer assignment, the Holy Spirit frequently leads us back to the books I wrote years earlier. We study them again—not because they are old, but because they contain present strategy and there may be new ways to apply things we used previously in another capacity. What was once preparation becomes instruction. What was once a story becomes intelligence for the current battle.

I often think back to how all of this began. I had no plans to host conferences. I had never organized one before. I was introduced to a woman at church whom I barely knew. As we talked about spiritual warfare, she looked at me and simply said, "You need to do a spiritual warfare conference." My first response was almost humorous. "Excuse me, ma'am," I thought. "You don't even know me. Please don't be assigning me dangerous assignments," is basically what I told her.

Yet while she was speaking, the Holy Spirit convicted my heart that this was not merely her opinion. Heaven was issuing my next assignment. At the time I was in the early stages of pursuing my Ph.D. My academic workload was demanding, and I planned to spend my two-week break between quarters organizing this brand-new conference that I had absolutely no idea how to host. Then life changed overnight.

On the very day I completed my final class before that break, my father unexpectedly suffered a heart attack and passed away. Everything stopped. I returned home to help my mother, make funeral arrangements, grieve with my family, and simply survive one of the most painful seasons of my life. During that time, I had what I believed was a reasonable conversation with God. Surely, I thought, this assignment could wait. Surely, after losing my father, God would understand if the conference was postponed.  Instead, the Lord reminded me of something that immediately brought my mind to Joshua after the death of Moses. Moses my servant is dead. The assignment had not changed simply because my circumstances had. As difficult as it was, He was calling me to continue forward.

The conference took place that September. In the middle of grief, God was teaching me endurance. In the middle of warfare, He was teaching me strategy. Every conference brought new opposition, new kingdom principles, new revelation, and deeper understanding. At the time, I thought I was simply surviving each assignment. Years later, I realized He was gathering material that would eventually become books capable of training believers long after the conferences had ended.

This is why I cannot answer the question, "When is the next conference?" Because I am not simply an author, I am a Kingdom Scribe and there’s a difference. While an author gets to decide what to write next, a Kingdom Scribe waits for the voice of the Lord.

Sometimes the revelation God intends to release cannot be written immediately because it must first be lived. It has to be tested. It has to survive warfare. It has to mature through obedience and experience before it can be entrusted to others. The writing is not delayed because heaven is silent. It is delayed because heaven is still producing the evidence.

If you are a Kingdom scribe reading this, I want to encourage you. Stop doubting the assignment God placed on your life. Lay aside the fear that no one will understand what you write or that your voice is insignificant. Your obedience may be preparing the Church for conversations that have not yet begun. You may be documenting revelation that will become strategy years from now.

And if you are a prophetic Kingdom scribe, the urgency is even greater. This is a clarion call for you all to WAKE UP and take your place. You do not know the prophetic scope of what God has entrusted to your pen. The words you write today may become the wisdom, strategy, and kingdom intelligence that believers will need ten or twenty years from now. Never underestimate what heaven can do with a surrendered pen.

Remember… It’s real in these spiritual streets!

Dr. Melinda Michelle Jefferson

www.gmme21.com 

If you want to check out the fiction series that I began releasing in 2012, check out The Chronicles of Warfare.