Halloween – are you playing with fire?

Woman uses a burning laptop(This is a copy of my blogpost today on my Raising World Changes Website – https://www.raisingworldchangers.com.au I believed it was suitable for this blog as well, thus the double up.)

Today is October 31st, the day when some people celebrate Halloween. For weeks now, there have been a vocal number of our local community who have advertised the message loud and clear that Halloween is something that they want to take part in. Parents have organised trick and treat walks with one side of the highway being advised to tie an orange balloon to your letterbox if you wish to take part in trick and treating and the other side of the highway saying tie an orange balloon to your letterbox if you don’t wish kids to call.

I was first exposed to Halloween ten years ago when I was in an accountability group with other young mums. One mum had older children and I can remember her saying that she was in a dilemma as her eldest son had been invited to a Halloween birthday party and she didn’t wish him to go. I expressed my ignorance, as growing up in country Australia, I had never been exposed to Halloween or what it symbolised. It seemed such an unAustralian thing to do. This sent me on a journey of inquiry and trying to see if I could find a definitive answer in relation to should christians celebrate Halloween. I was aghast at some of the things I discovered, the origins and the implications. Anyone can google and find out this information. There were numerous reports from Pastors in the US who seriously advised against participating in this in any form. They cited serious consequences of church members who had suffered demonic complications with their health, relationships, finances and joy after being involved in what they believed to be an innocent activity. Would we normally allow our children to play with fire? Why then, would we encourage them to participate in Halloween activities? Where do you stop in relation to participating and modelling going along with demonic activities and playing around the edges of something sinister?

That same year, as I was bathing the children early one evening, there was a knock at door. I did the wrong thing leaving the kids in the bath alone to rush to the door. Standing there were a group of kids that asked if I had anything for them. I incredulously asked them what they meant as I had no idea. They replied, “Lollies of course” and I innocently stated, “why would you come and ask me for that?”. They left and I hurriedly returned to my kids in the bath. Only later did it dawn on me that it was Halloween and these kids must have been trick or treating. I think my reputation in regard to Halloween has gone before me and I have only ever had one other year when kids knocked on our door.

Several years ago, neighbours up the road were going trick or treating and my son really wanted to go with them. He kept talking about all the lollies he would get. Apparently these kids knew which houses would give the biggest amount of lollies. I refused to let our kids participate and we talked instead about the consequences of participating and opening up an entry point (or door) to the demonic. Hubby and I at that stage had just been through a few torrid years of dealing with a lot of generational and freemasonary issues and certainly didn’t want to willingly open any doors to the demonic again.  We have chosen instead to not even give recognition to it but have approached the evening in the opposite spirit and had a great time as a family either watching a movie or playing games and having special food and celebrating life with Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour. We openly discuss Halloween and the implications with our children since they are at an age where they can understand the implications.

This year, Matey (10) is in the outback camping with hubby where they will not even register that it is Halloween. Princess (13) has her dance class and then we will be having an early night as we were both up early this morning for swimming squad training. Thus, it will be a non event for our family. Princess did comment to me that she wondered if her swimming coach was a Christian as when team members commented on Halloween, the coach was incredulous that it was an American tradition and had no place in Australia and was extremely vocal that it was all about witches and demonic stuff and why would anyone want anything at all to do with that. With Princess and myself being in bed early, I am planning on setting aside a portion of time to pray specifically over our home, our neighbour’s houses, our streets, the local fire brigade which is hosting a Halloween party etc. I notice that there is a change in the spiritual atmosphere on nights like this when witches are out in force actively casting spells on these nights. I aim to counteract some of the spiritual force in this area. (A practical outworking of noticing a change in the spiritual atmosphere over the area is that our ten year old son who never seems to have any sleeping issues will have trouble getting to sleep and may well wake up with seeing a demonic being in his bedroom or feel a demonic presence. This is quickly dealt with by helping him to focus on where Jesus and the Holy Spirit are in the room etc and he immediately shifts his focus. It is a pattern that I am learning to observe and starting to see it on a smaller scale when a full moon is present.) I am praying that the light of Christ will shine brightly over this area and cleanse it, that people will come to know Jesus as their own personal Lord and Saviour. In the next week, our family will then plan our neighbourhood evangelism around the Christmas message with Christmas soon coming upon us.

Several years ago, I had a guest blogger on my Raising World Changers blog (Michelle Willis “Redeeming Halloween: One Family’s Experience” 16th November 2014) write about her experiences of how she participated naively in Halloween as a child and how she wouldn’t let her kids do the same. Instead, she bought lollies and Christian comic magazines and gave them out with a blessing prayer to any kids that knocked on her door. I have heard of other families having parties to celebrate Jesus as the light of the world on this night.

After being involved in prayer ministry for a number of years, I highly recommend that you do not participate in any Halloween activities. I have seen a number of people who have had to deal with a lot of unnecessary negative and demonic issues in their life from naively opening the door to the demonic through activities like this.

Personally I am wanting my kids to have a clean imagination, one that is from God and can see angelic spiritual beings through God’s lenses. I do not want society’s images of any supernatural beings influencing their thought life. I would be very hesitant as a parent if I had young children or children who were highly sensitive to allow them to view some of the ghoulish creatures walking our streets tonight. These images can foster nightmares and bad dreams.

This is not an activity for Christian families to be actively going to a Halloween party to evangelise. Please do not sacrifice your freedom and your children’s freedom in the spirit by unnecessarily opening a doorway for the demonic to enter your family line. If you would like to evangelise, then hold a ‘light of the world’ party in your own home and invite your non Christian friends there, under your terms and without the spiritual implications obtained from the demonic. If you feel that you must go so as to evangelise, then go yourself but don’t involve your children.

Please parents, research Halloween and make an informed decision. Ask God to show you and tell you what you and your family’s response needs to be to Halloween. Whatever you do though, please don’t play with fire.

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: Spend a few moments worshiping God and then pray and ask God to show everyone present where His angels are in the street on a night  like Halloween. Ask God to reveal to everyone in the room what He would like them to do on a night like Halloween. Give everyone an opportunity to share or draw a picture. (Please emphasize what God’s angels are doing and don’t focus on the demonic supernatural activity.)

2. Group Activation: Spend some time in worship as a group and then ask God to open everyone’s spiritual eyes and ears to see and hear what God would love them to know about Halloween and what God would like their personal response to be. Ask God to reveal to individuals who they could prophesy over and what about.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to highlight a person dressed up in character for Halloween, even at the shops etc, and to give you a prophetic word to share with them.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to give you a blessing or prophetic word for everyone who knocks on your door for Halloween. Ask God what else He would have you do eg give them lollies as well etc.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time worshiping God and ask Him to reveal His strategy that He would like you to adopt personally in response to Halloween. Then ask God for the next steps forward to take to implement them.

Worship reflecting our view of God

girl looking at red balloonsI have been reflecting recently on how the worship styles in the different churches we have been involved in have been quite different. From reciting liturgy to singing songs that focus on what I get from God and on myself, to giving worth to God the Most High. Over the last 5 decades, Hubby and I have been involved in the Brethren Church, Salvation Army, Methodist (now Uniting Church), Baptist, Churches of Christ, and Pentecostal churches. During this time, I have also seen various changes in the churches we have been a part of with song styles from hymns, Scripture in Song choruses, songs of justice, songs focusing on the awe and worth of God, Hillsong music, Bethel music, and songs concentrating largely on my identity in God.

In my reflection, I am tossing around the idea that our song writing illustrates our view of God. If we are writing songs, and then singing songs, about how God sees us, that reflects our view of God. If we are writing and singing songs giving God the worth that He desires, that reflects a different view of God. If we are writing and singing songs about the nations and that translating across indigenous groups, that reflects yet another dimension of God. Simply put, are we singing songs that focus on the awe of God, the love of God, the fear of God or on reminding ourselves who we are to God?

Soren Kierkegaard, a theologian, said that worship is a performance with the congregation being the performers and God the audience. “Worship happens most fully when the community gathers to encounter the living God and respond with everything we’ve got.”

First of all, worship is about God.  It’s less about you than you may think.  It’s not so much about you coming and getting filled up or coming and hearing what you need to hear.  That’s not to say that worship has nothing to do with those things, but they are mostly by-products of worship, not the goal of worship.  What we get out of worship has more to do with our response which always follows an encounter with God.  Worship is first and foremost about God.

Arthur Burk (http://www.theslg.com) describes some dreams he has about worship in his youtube video titled “Egyptian Depression”. He says that worship is an antidote to depression and encourages listeners in the 20.18 minute video to dream about ways you would love to worship God. He listed three himself – John G. Lake, when he was in South Africa during a service, went into a trance for 20 minutes. During this time, his spirit flew to Wales where a member of the audience’s daughter was in an Asylum. He apparently prayed for her, God healed her and his spirit flew back. Another of Arthur’s dreams is in utter quiet and stillness on a lake. Yet another in a lighthouse in the midst of a winter storm in the Atlantic Ocean and being able to experience God as the strong tower talked about in Proverbs 18:10.

Personally I love walking along the beach on a stormy day and hearing the waves crashing near me and feeling God’s love crashing continually in on me and singing hymns of worship to God. I realise that I best hear God when I am in motion, not standing or sitting still. On my morning walk, or in the shower, basically whenever I am moving I tend to experience and hear God more. I also love the strong tower image from Proverbs 18:10 and often imagine God as a strong tower and I am running in to Him. Others love soaking to music whilst lying still on the floor and become immersed in experiencing God then. Others in different aspects of nature. My hubby prefers being in the bush and hearing God clearly there. Others love driving their car and experiencing intimacy with God then. Others find beautiful times of worship and intimacy with God when painting or being creative. Others love the comfy chair where they commune daily with God. Most nights my friend offers her spirit to God for Him to take her where he needs her most, protect her from anything not of God and for the Holy Spirit to guide her. She has been to Syria, North Korea and various other places, ministering to folk, much like John G. Lake did.

What are your dreams of worship, of completely abandoning yourself to God and His goodness and experiencing Him in a fresh new way and experiencing that new characteristic of God that you know about in your head but haven’t truly experienced in your heart? I encourage you to explore various ways this week.

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: Spend a few moments worshiping God and then pray and ask God to show everyone present where His angels are in the room, what they look like and what they are doing. Then get everyone to share. (Children usually can see in the spirit realm if they haven’t been shut down by adults dismissing what they have seen in the past. I will never forget my son on Remembrance Day in Australia which is where we have a national day of pausing and remembering fallen soldiers, sharing how during worship in church he saw angels dressed in army gear standing side by side all around the coastline of Australia protecting the gold that was within Australia. At that stage he had no idea it was Remembrance Day.)

2. Group Activation: Spend some time in worship as a group and then ask God to open everyone’s spiritual eyes to see what He is doing in the room or what is happening in the room in the spiritual realm. For those having difficulty with this, encourage them to begin to imagine some angels coming into the room and what they may look like and be doing etc. Then ask people to share and note any similarities and look for what you need to do next ie if someone sees angels bringing healing, then it would be appropriate to follow this time with praying for people to be healed.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend some time this week reflecting where you most easily hear and experience God and where you also most love worshiping God. Experiment and see if there is perhaps a new area or new environment or way of encountering God this week. Try and discover the place you most clearly hear God’s voice and feel His comfort.

4. Intermediate Activation: Think of a current concern you have. Spend a few moments worshiping God, giving Him worth. Then imagine approaching the throne room of heaven and taking that concern with you and handing it to God and asking for His perspective on it. Wait and encounter all that God wants to give you.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend some time dreaming with God and asking Him to give you a new song. Ask for His music, rhythm, words. Sing it back to God.

Physical Words of Knowledge part 2

Woman suffering from toothache tooth pain.Several weeks ago on a Sunday morning, I woke up with a horrific headache. I was a tiny bit alarmed as I lay in bed wondering what to do. It was cold and I didn’t relish the idea of getting out of bed but as I determined that this was not a normal headache, I realised I needed to get up and take some analgesia. The pain was not in a circle pressing in nature which is what I sometimes get if it is due to a demonic presence / witchcraft issue. It was not at the front like my normal headache symptoms or at the back like a neck issue. This was a boring type of pain right in the middle of my head, slightly to the right. The pain was strong and I knew I needed to deal with it. I prayed for God to take it away with no apparent effect. Thus I reluctantly hopped out of bed, went to the kitchen and swallowed the appropriate tablets.

The pain continued without relief which shocked me somewhat. I am used to neurofen taking away any headache and it was certainly not working this time. I ended up taking more tablets than is recommended as the pain was severe and didn’t ease at all with the medication. I needed to go to church that morning as hubby had only had his neck operation the previous week and was still unable to drive and our daughter was on duty in the children’s ministry. We live a 45 minute drive from church with no people nearby whom could take our daughter.

As I was standing in worship at the beginning of the service, I suddenly wondered if perhaps this headache wasn’t really ‘mine’ but a word of knowledge. Earlier this year I had prayed to God and asked if He would give me physical words of knowledge. Whilst on a mission trip to Cambodia earlier in the year, I received some physical words of knowledge but I hadn’t operated in this since then.

As soon as I realised that perhaps this may be a word of knowledge, I stopped and asked God what should I do next. Immediately two people came to mind. A close friend’s father had just been diagnosed with a tumour in his head that was positioned almost exactly where I was feeling the pain. There was also a member of the church who had been admitted to hospital with serious neurological issues and the doctors had been unable to determine the cause. Thus, since God had brought those people to my mind, I prayed for both of them there, just quietly during worship. As soon as I had prayed for them, my headache instantly disappeared. Wow – it was amazing. I must confess that I instantly wished that I had thought of that earlier and had not had to suffer the pain for over 5 hours!!

After further reading and reflection, I have come to realise that words of knowledge felt physically are quite common. We need to be able to discern, though, what ‘belongs’ to us and what doesn’t. For instance, if you normally suffer from an ear ache and you feel an ear ache whilst you are asking God to reveal words of knowledge to you, then that may well be your own ear ache and not a word of knowledge about someone else. The headache I suffered had a very unusual pain for me ie I had never experienced that sort of headache pain before.

The physical symptom will disappear immediately you ‘release’ that word of knowledge. Even if you don’t see a person healed, or no-one responds to the word of knowledge, once you have released it and done your part, then the physical symptom will usually immediately disappear from your body.

Please be aware that feeling a word of knowledge doesn’t automatically assume complete healing for the other person. It may well occur and it usually does but it may simply be that God is growing you or wanting to communicate His love to the other person through that method.

Some practical ideas to help you grow in the use of physical words of knowledge:

  • Step out in faith and try it by asking God.
  • Practice tuning in with God, asking Him to show you and catch the first thought through your mind. It may be a fleeting thought through your mind as a word or feeling and it may be easy for you to doubt due to the ‘vagueness’ of it.
  • The physical feeling may be a pain or discomfit that doesn’t go away and isn’t something that you normally experience.
  • Be as specific as you can be as the more specific you are the more it builds faith in you and in the other person.
  • Don’t add to the word of knowledge. Don’t presume that if you see a certain image then you say what you normally believe about it. Just state the facts.
  • Don’t use the words “God told me…” etc. Instead say something like “I sense that someone has a right knee pain that is on the outside of the knee…” Ask God if an injury or accident caused the physical issue, and share that if appropriate as the more specific the more it is harder to doubt.
  • Have the right character and the right attitude. If you are humble and compassionate, instead of arrogant, then even if no-one responds to the word of knowledge, it hasn’t offended anyone but God’s grace has reigned.
  • Just because no-one responds, it doesn’t mean that you have heard wrong. I can count oodles of times in the Healing Rooms situation when one of my team member’s has asked a question and the person receiving prayer has said that it doesn’t apply to them, yet I am cheering silently that my team member is spot on but the other person either doesn’t want to admit it or doesn’t realise it is true. People need a ‘way out’ gracefully so be gentle and careful with how you say words of knowledge.
  • Be accountable to someone to help you work through what is of God and what is of you.
  • God wants to give you words of knowledge because He wants you to use them. Don’t let fear rob you and also rob the receiver who might have been healed by what you could have shared.

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: Have sheets of paper prepared with an outline of a human body on it. Hand a sheet out to everyone present together with a pencil/pen/crayon etc. Ask God to show everyone any body part which God wants to heal today. Ask everyone to draw on that part of the body that they feel God is showing them. Usually children are very quick at immediately getting words of knowledge. Once that is finished, then look for people whom that fits and ask that particular child to pray for that symptom.

2. Group Activation: Spend some time in worship as a group and ask God to reveal to everyone present a physical word of knowledge about a medical condition/issue relevant to someone else in the group. Take it in turns to share what you felt and ask if it relates to anyone present. If so, pray for the person it applies to.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to give you a physical word of knowledge about someone you know and to show you who it is for. Contact that person, ask them in a caring manner if it applies to them, and if so, if you can pray for them.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to give you a physical word of knowledge for someone you will meet today in a shop. Be on the lookout for this person and courageously ask if it applies to them and if so, offer to pray for them.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to show you a prevalent current medical condition in your culture eg here in Australia, chronic fatigue syndrome plus also food intolerances and allergies are prolific. Ask God to reveal to you the root cause or background to this. Spend some time seeking God’s heart as to what He would have you do as a result of what He has revealed to you.

Words of Knowledge part 1

litlle cute blond  boy tired sad isolatedThe definition from Wikipedia is often defined as “the ability of one person to know what God is currently doing or intends to do in the life of another person. It can also be defined as knowing the secrets of another person’s heart.” In other words, it is a  supernatural revelation of information from the Holy Spirit.

The Bible talks about this in 1 Cor. 2:12-13 where Paul writes, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches”. Also in 1 Corinthians 12:8 “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit”.

There are numerous occasions in the Bible when people received a supernatural revelation of information about another person or their situation. A couple of examples include: John 1:47 where Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching him and received a word of knowledge. Acts 5:1-11 with Ananias and Sapphira. 1 Samuel 9-10 with Samuel and the donkeys. I Kings 14:2-3 Ahijah’s prophecy against Jeroboam. 2 Kings 5:20-27 Gehazi’s deceit with Naaman.

An example of this is several years ago, our family was driving to church for our Saturday morning’s Healing Rooms. We had been encouraged to ask God to reveal to us any conditions or names of people whom God wanted to heal. Usually when we do this, we come up with a whole list of at least 10-12 conditions. My son, who would have been about 7 years old at the time said diabetes, hospital and a certain boy’s name. We wrote it down and pondered that perhaps someone was on the way to hospital or had just been discharged from hospital etc. At the end of the morning, we reviewed the conditions and realised that we had not seen this person. It was easy to dismiss this as he ‘got it wrong’. However several days later we heard that a friend’s son (with the exact name that my son had said) had been admitted to hospital and diagnosed with diabetes on that day. Thus, we made a visit to this boy in hospital. He wasn’t healed from our prayer. I do believe though that it communicated that God was caring for him and tried to show His love to him by this.

Words of knowledge are often used for healing but it is not an absolute for healing. In other words, when words of knowledge about a physical condition are given, you can expect that God wants to heal the person but it is not always the case. Usually a word of knowledge builds faith in the person who needs the healing and also in the person who received the word of knowledge. It is usually very comforting to the person with the physical complaint and communicates that God is aware of them and their need. It doesn’t always translate that this person will be healed then, but most likely. If the person is not healed then, it is no one’s fault. Please never start questioning whose lack of faith it was etc. Sometimes God just wants to communicate His love to this person and that He knows this person’s situation.

Words of knowledge don’t always have to relate to healing. It may be about a certain situation, or to travel to a certain area, or about a specific situation that a church is facing and the breakthrough required etc. God cannot be limited and will use whatever means He likes to communicate so as to achieve His purpose.

When a Christian receives a word of knowledge about someone who is not a christian who needs a certain healing and then sees that person, shares what God has shown them and prays for them on the spot and that person experiences healing, it often results in that person responding to Jesus. It is hard to dispute a physical demonstration of the power of God in the name of Jesus. It is an amazing demonstration that Jesus is concerned about them.

The more specific the word of knowledge is, the more faith it tends to build in the people involved. If the word of knowledge is received through feeling something physical eg pain, it is helpful if the kind of pain and its exact location is stated. The person receiving the word should be careful not to change it, not to add to it, and not to dismiss any little detail about it that may seem insignificant.

God can communicate words of knowledge to us in several different ways. There is never one prescription with God. He is supreme and can use whatever method He chooses. Several of those ways are:

  • Physical eg pain in a part of your body that is not yours. A sudden left knee pain when you have never had left knee pain before just before you pray for someone etc.
  • Empathetic feeling – feeling a strong emotion eg fear, suicide, loneliness which you know is not from you or how you feel.
  • Mental picture or see an image – eg a body part, a car accident, a picture of someone getting hurt or in a particular situation. You may read a word written (invisibly to everyone else) over someone’s head or see a newspaper headline.
  • An impression or just ‘know’ that you know – a sense in your mind that someone has a particular condition or is feeling a particular way.
  • A dream or vision of someone with a health problem or you with a new health problem which you don’t have etc.
  • Automatically the words tumble out of your mouth as if by the Holy Spirit whilst chatting or praying with someone about something you were totally unaware of.

In next week’s blog (part 2), I will be sharing more specifically about physical words of knowledge and how to recognise these.

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: Hand out blank cards to everyone and explain that as a group you will ask God to give you encouraging words and things from Him to write or draw on the cards. Ask God to show everyone what sort of car the person is driving to whom this picture/words are for eg blue station wagon, silver Ford, red Toyota etc. You will then go to a car park and find the cars you were shown or told about and put these cards on the windscreens of those cars.

2. Group Activation: As a group quieten before God and spend a few moments asking God to reveal words of knowledge to everyone in the group and listening to what He is saying and showing. Take it in turns to share what you felt/saw/perceived etc and ask if it relates to anyone present.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to give you a word of knowledge for someone at church or a Bible study group next time you meet. It may be a physical pain, an encouraging comment, a word of wisdom etc in relation to something someone is going through of which you have no knowledge of their situation etc.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to give you a word of knowledge about someone today and to show you who it is for. When you see that person, ask them in a caring manner if it applies to them, and if so, if you can pray for them.

5. Advanced Activation: As you are about to buy something today, ask God to give you a word of knowledge about the shop assistant. Then in a caring manner ask the shop assistant if it applies to them and then take the necessary steps required as a follow-on.

Ministry to Vietnam Veterans

Vietnam Vet: A Hero's WelcomeI am no longer nursing due to changing circumstances but in the last 4 years of my nursing I would ask God before each shift, “Who do you want me to pray for today?”. I had some amazing experiences of seeing a number of people receive creative healing miracles.

One morning I arrived at work in Coronary Care to find that I was assigned to an angry and very sick man who was a Vietnam Veteran. I was only meant to nurse him until he was transferred from our small private hospital to a major public hospital for emergency life saving surgery and repair of an operation which had resulted in some ongoing bleeding. This morning, my ears were pricked up as soon as I discovered my assignment. I had recently done further prayer ministry training and heard that when the Australian and American army were fighting in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, there was a group of Buddhist monks who repeatedly cursed these armed forces with three curses. They were:

  1. They would always be angry.
  2. They would never find peace / rest.
  3. They would always have a wandering spirit.

In Australia, Vietnam Veterans came home to a public that generally despised them and a government that never honoured them. Though they had risked their lives for this country, the country tended to shun them.

Thus, that morning I decided to try out a new theory I had. There was nothing to lose but a lot to gain if it worked.

As I was receiving handover on this patient as I was solely caring for him, the night shift nurse was very pleased to hand him over to someone else. He was apparently angry, and his wife was even worse. They were fed up with everything and everyone and were looking for someone to legally sue over his treatment. Not a good start to my day. The staff had specifically assigned him to me as I only worked once per fortnight on the ward so it would give the other staff a break from his attitude, plus I had a reputation for handling the difficult patients in an amazing manner.

Before I entered his room, I took authority over his room. He was in a single room and technically it was his room. I decided that since I was the nurse, and had been given the authority from the hospital that shift to care for him and treat him, I therefore had authority and permission for that room in the spiritual realm. I prayed a quick prayer of authority and released peace into the atmosphere. I claimed that since I was a child of the most High God, that I carried Kingdom presence and that that would change the atmosphere in the room.

I walked in to check the intravenous fluids and drugs with the night nurse. The patient and wife did not look happy but were pleased that a new nurse was coming in as they hadn’t liked the night nurse, or any nurse for that matter. We checked everything and I said goodbye to the nurse. I introduced myself to the patient and his wife and asked them what they expected for that morning. I realised that he would be transferred as soon as possible to the major hospital, so after checking his observations, I decided to give him a quick wash in bed as he was too sick to move out of bed, and to make him as comfortable as possible. At this point, his wife decided that she could trust me and left to go to the toilet and freshen up.

I took the opportunity to thank this Vietnam Veteran for what he did for our country, for me and my children and for our future. I must admit, I laid it on thick. I realised that Vietnam Vets had never been honoured for their service and came home to an atmosphere of being despised. Thus, I honoured him and his service. I also thanked and blessed him in the area of finding peace and rest, for being able to settle in one place and to be able to truly experience love. I didn’t stop talking, releasing healing under my breath and blessing this man and his wife.

Up until this point, the man had not uttered a word and had seemed unresponsive to everything I had said. I was beginning to doubt the effectiveness of what I was doing. Then the wife returned. She had left the room a very tense, angry woman. She entered the room, and stood for a few moments then sank down into a chair and began to cry. I became a little concerned. I went to her and quietly put my arm around her shoulder and asked her what was happening for her. I fully expected a tirade of abuse. Instead, she shocked me by saying that all her anger had just left her. She felt peace for the first time in years. She felt that everything was going to be alright. I was gobsmacked.

For the next few moments, I listened to her and then blessed her and thanked her. I told her what I had said to her husband. At that stage, I had to leave the room to prepare a drug for her husband. When I returned, I noticed a significant change in the atmosphere. Gone was the tension, the discomfit, the anger. I now could feel the peace and assurance. Checking the patient’s vital signs, I noticed a significant difference and ‘righting’ and reverse of a pattern of his status becoming worse with significant internal bleeding. His pain had stopped. Colour was beginning to return to his skin. I needed to keep checking his observations to check that I hadn’t made a mistake.

The Doctors soon entered the room to check him before he was transferred to the other hospital. They noticed a difference in him, the atmosphere in the room, and his condition. They could identify the exact time his condition and changed, but couldn’t attribute it to any medial measure.

This patient no longer needing transferring to that major hospital. He stabilised and was able to the treated at our smaller hospital.

I handed over to the afternoon nurse and was musing over the effect of blessing this man and his wife and changing the atmosphere of the room on my drive home. I had just arrived home from the drive of 15 minutes when I received a phone call from the afternoon nurse. She was a Christian and she wanted to know what I had done in the room that morning as every nurse on the afternoon shift had been talking about the difference in this man and his wife and they could only attribute it to me nursing him that morning. All the nurses wanted to know what I had done in the room, what my secret was. I ended up having a coffee with that nurse the following week and explaining it.

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: Mark out some squares on an area on the ground/floor with chalk or tape, similar to hopscotch. Throw a dice and jump/hop that number of squares towards the finishing square. Place a challenge in several of the squares eg “Ask God for an encouraging word for the next person”. “Ask God for a colour for the last person who had a turn.” “Ask God which vehicle the person who next throws a ‘one’ would be like and why.” Be creative. When people land in those squares, they then get to ask God for that thing for that specific person.

2. Group Activation: For this activation, you will need to have done some preparation before your meeting. Make up a ‘pass the parcel’ with a small item between each layer. Go to a shop or a craft cupboard and find a number of small cheap items eg balloon, chewing gum, craft pearls, bottle of food colouring, matches, USB cable, spice, chocolate bar, yo-yo, tape measure, air freshner, pen etc. Anything will do. Wrap the first item in a layer of paper, then put another item on the next layer and cover with a layer of paper. Keep going until you have a number of layers of paper. I generally do 4 parcels of 6 or 7 layers for a group of 20 people. Get the group to sit in a circle and pass the parcel(s) with music going. When the music stops, whoever is holding the parcel(s) opens that layer and views the item. They then have 30 seconds to ask God whom to give that item to within the group and what prophetic word to say about it. You will be amazed at what people hear from God and say. Then start the music again and pass the parcel until the music stops. When you do multiple parcels with the one group, it helps increase the number of prophetic words given whilst reducing the time taken. I also say that some people may get several items given to them and others may not receive anything. That is o’kay. You are hearing from God about who to give it to, not trying to please everyone and make it ‘fair’.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God what sort of flower and what colour flower you should buy today and who to give it to. Ask God to then show or tell you something about His heart for that person. Then give it to that person.

4. Intermediate Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to give you a prophetic word for Donald Trump who is currently running for American President. Write it out without using any christianese or church language. Remember prophetic words are encouraging, strengthening and comforting. Google his email address & send it to him. Perhaps get another trusted and mature person to check it first. Currently I believe his email to be: [email protected]

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to show you a public spokesperson on an issue of justice that seems unbiblical. Ask God to reveal something to you of that person’s upbringing and background that may have negatively influenced them in this area. Spend some time listening to God and praying for this person and asking God what He would like your response to be to that person, the issue of justice and how to show them God’s love and how to intercede for them.