Intimacy with God

Young Boy Hugging his fatherWhenever anyone asks me for advice on how they can develop in the prophetic, the first thing that comes to mind, apart from practice, practice, practice is to just spend time with God. Intimacy with God. The prophetic gifting, praying for healing for people, any evidence of supernatural gifts comes out of our relationship with God.

I must share here firstly how there is not a 100% formula for God ie here is an example where the use of a supernatural gift did not come out of a relationship and intimacy with God. Before my dad became a Christian, he was with my mum at my Aunty and Uncle’s baptism in a Pentecostal church. During the service, someone stood up and gave a word in tongues. Not realising what was going on, Mum leaned over to dad and said, “I wish they would talk in English.” A few minutes later, whilst the second person had stood up and was speaking, dad whispered to mum, “Why on earth is that man repeating exactly what that last lady said.” Dad had no concept of the gift of interpreting tongues!! He wasn’t yet a Christian and it blew my mind that he would be able to interpret tongues without being a Christian. God tends to blow my preconceived notions and ‘rules’. God is amazing and doesn’t stick to rules.

From experience, intimacy with Father God is what it is all about. I am more interested in connecting with Father God than using my prophetic gifting. Becoming intimate and closer with Father God, Holy Spirit and Jesus is my aim.

Just recently I realised that I had an issue with calling God ‘daddy God’. I cannot remember ever calling my earthly father ‘daddy’. I called him ‘dad’ and most likely called him ‘daddy’ when I was younger but it wasn’t something I could remember. I hear other people praying and addressing God as ‘Daddy God’ but it has never felt natural for me to use that term. Thus, I decided I would try and change that. One morning during a walk, I chatted with God about my relationship with my earthly father, forgave my dad for some stuff, confessed some of my stuff and renounced any lies that God would be the same. I then started addressing God as ‘Daddy God’ and really pushed into. I imagined myself being cuddled by Daddy God. I pushed into focussing my thoughts and attention and heart on daddy God. Before long I was crying and feeling new feelings and experiencing new positive thoughts towards Daddy God. I had broken into a new area of intimacy with God. Since that morning, I address Father God as Daddy God most days and wait for a reaction from both Him and me. I am enjoying the new emotions that come with this new revelation of Father God as my daddy.

I find it is out of my intimacy and relationship with God that fresh revelation comes. It is then not hard to ask God for His thoughts about another person and move into communicating to that person God’s heart for them – a prophetic word from God.

What area this week would you like to experience breakthrough in relation to your relationship with Father God, Holy Spirit or Jesus? What is something you could do now to move towards that?

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)

1. Children / Families Activation: Encourage each child to draw a picture of what animal God would like to be for their dad, or another family member, at the moment and why.

2. Group Activation: Have people pair up. Give everyone a few minutes to ask God who He would like to be at the moment for their partner. Encourage group members to flesh it out with God, asking for more of the picture or word. Then share it with their partner.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to give you a picture or image of who God wants to be for you at the moment. Press deeper with God and spend time just sitting with that picture, image or word, repeating it and really savoring what it means for you and your relationship with God.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you a person and spend time with God asking Him to reveal something new about Himself that He would like that person to be absolutely sure of. Share with that person.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him what characteristics and assurance a prominent government official needs to gently be aware of about God and how He sees them. Write an encouraging letter to this person, sharing this in a sensitive manner.