Prophesies – what do I do with mine? (part 3)

In the previous few blog posts, I have looked at what to do with your prophetic word in relation to using it to contend with your current situation and how to get the most out of it in relation to your identity. This blog post looks at what your prophetic word is saying about your calling & purpose and how to extrapolate that out of your prophetic word.

When we returned from Mozambique 6 years ago, we looked at the fact that our 8 year old daughter had prophetic words over her life about healing people in the natural and supernatural. We realised that we couldn’t just wait until she was say 21 and expect her to start praying for people and seeing healings. We had to steward her growth and development in this. Thus, our family joined our church’s Healing Rooms Team where we would all get experience and training praying for people to be healed. For the first 5 years we were involved in this, there were minimal children on the team ie mostly one other girl. Were my kids happy about being involved? Not always, mainly due to the fact that there weren’t many other kids although my daughter loved catching up with the other girl and looked forward to the times being with her. Were we tempted many times to stop doing this as a family because it was hard? Yes, but we hung in there. Now there are at least 15 children / teenagers on the team and our kids look forward to going. My daughter has learnt heaps about God and healing throughout this time and has seen many healings. Her expectation is that God can and will heal and wants to heal and she just expects God to heal since she has seen Him heal many times.

I want to start today by encouraging you to:

  • Grab some highlighters, a blank sheet of paper and pens.
  • Read through your prophetic word once again, this time highlighting all the words that talk about your future, your purpose, action or ‘doing’ words (as against ‘being’ words), where you are likely to be in the future or what you are likely to be doing.
  • Grab the blank piece of paper and a pen and then write down all the highlighted words on the piece of paper.
  • If you have several prophetic words, do this for them all.
  • Look for any common threads or similar words and highlight them.
  • Look for any specific words that talk about where, what, who with, etc Circle them so they stand out. Use your sheet of paper to mark and highlight aspects that are important.
  • Take particular note of any character stuff. Our calling is not in isolation. It is very dependent on our character. Clues to this can be found in who God wants to be for us in this next stage/season of our life. Look for any words along this line. God is a relational God, so He wants to come with us on the journey we are embarking on. He wants to play an important role in this journey so look for clues as to who He is wanting to be. Another way of looking at it is ‘what is God wanting to provide for me on this journey?’
  • As you did with your identity words, read through your prophetic words again and look for words or themes that are repeated, or emphasized.

Personal prophecy is conditional. It is conditional on us co-operating with God and becoming who He wants us to become. Usually this requires a step up in our character or skills or identity. Does anything come to mind immediately in regard to this? Take a moment to ask God to highlight anything to you where you need to go on a character journey. Look back on your identity words from last blog post. What are you needing to grow in?

Spend time dreaming with God.

  • Next, spend some time just being with God, dreaming or imaging what the future may look like for you if these prophetic words come true.
  • What steps will you need to take to get from where you are currently are to where you will be?
  • Start listing off practical stuff that you would need to grow in.
  • Continue spending time with God over the next little while dreaming and brainstorming with God about these steps.
  • Look at the first few steps you would need to take. Write them down. Ask God to impress on you the way forward and how? You need to take some responsibility to action these steps. You just can’t expect God to pluck you out of your current circumstances and land you right in your fulfilled prophecy. You may find it helpful to grab another sheet of paper and draw the steps and label them.

Craft a prophetic declaration

What we decree and declare brings life and power. These words speak of commanding, ordering, bringing into being, agreeing with in the spiritual to change the physical. Spend time writing a prophetic declaration about who you are becoming (taken from last blogpost on identity) and what you will be doing. We are speaking truth into the atmosphere and engaging our future with who God says we are becoming. The words we speak bring life or death. We can use our words to bring breakthrough into our current situation. Look at your sheet of paper and choose the words from there that speak about your calling. Put those words into a declaration.

I begin like this. “I decree and declare that God sees me as….

My calling and purpose in life is…..

I decree and declare that God wants to be …… for me during this season.”

 Write down your next 3 steps

We need to be intentional in who we are becoming and what we are doing.

  • Write down the first 3 steps you need to take.
  • Write a date beside each one that you hope to have accomplished this by.
  • Highlight that which is under God’s control in one colour and that is under your control in another colour.
  • Look at what you need to stop doing so as to allow you time, space and energy to accomplish this.

Accountability:

I have personally found that the times in my life when I get someone else to hold me accountable for some goals that I’ve set, I actually go on to achieve those goals. The mere fact that I need to meet with someone else and they will ask me how I am going in certain areas helps to keep me accountable and ploughing towards where I am hoping to be. I also find that it is helpful if that person is a person of prayer and will support me by praying for me.

Thus, write down answers to the following:

  1. My decree and declaration
  2. The next 3 steps I need to take.
  3. What I need to stop doing.
  4. Who I need to hold myself accountable to in this journey for support.
  5. Suggested dates for review.
  6. Set aside time in your diary to sit with God and review how it is going, read over your prophetic words again, pray through it all.

Remember to marinate all this with prayer and worship, spending time with God asking Him to reveal more through this process. Enjoy the journey!!

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy!

Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Write sentences on slips of paper eg “If daddy was a car, which car would he be?”, “If mummy was a flower, which flower would she be?”, “If sister was a toy, which toy?”, which book, which song, which musical instrument, which animal etc. Place each slip of paper in a different balloon and blow up the balloons, tying the ends. Get each person to choose a balloon. Play some music and when the music stops, have the first person bust their balloon and read what’s written on the paper. They then answer the question. Play more music and continue the game to the end. If bursting balloons is an issue with any children, place the slips of paper in a bag and when the music stops, draw a slip of paper out.

2. Group Activation: Have everyone place one thing from either their pocket or their handbag on a central table in the room. Ask everyone to select an object off the table. Then ask them to give a prophetic word to the owner of that object.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to highlight a family to you and then ask God to show you a bible character for each family member and how the Bible characters relate to them, ie which aspect of that Bible character is relevant for that person. Share with that family.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight a family to you and ask Him to then give, show or tell you a prophetic word for that family as a whole unit. Share with the family.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to reveal a country to you and a prophetic word for that country. Spend time praying over that and turning it into a declaration that you then declare on a regular basis.