What we focus on, we see.

Conceptual image of a cat looking into the mirror and seeing a reflection of a large lion

I have recently had several conversations with folk who can see spiritual beings and obviously have a seer gifting. These folk were chatting with me about a concern that they all had as they kept seeing demons. They could easily ‘see’ where the demons were in the room. They had become quite scared. I gently challenged them with the words, “what we focus on, we see”. In other words, if we are looking for demons, we will see them. If we are looking for angels, we will see them. What we focus on, we will see. I challenged them when they were next in a place where it was evident there were a lot of demons, to ask God to highlight the angels in the place. To look for God amidst the yuck. To look for what God was doing there in that situation. One was in a nightclub, another in a seedy part of the town. When I next chatted with them, they all expressed amazement that it no longer scared them when they walked there as they could now see what God was doing there.

Over the years, I found a similar thing with one of my children. This child would occasionally wake up, seeing a demon in their bedroom. I knew never to dismiss it or pretend it wasn’t there. Instead, I would gently reassure them and ask Jesus to come and show them where He was in the room. Almost instantaneously, they would see Jesus right next to them in bed, and hear Him saying something reassuring to them. Within a few minutes, they would be fast asleep again. I never had to deal with the demon as my child had shifted their focus on to God.

It is similar to when people are wanting to lose weight – do you pin a photo of the ‘fat’ looking you or the ‘thin’ looking you on the fridge? Research shows that the ‘thin’ looking you goes up on the fridge as that is what you want to focus on.

It depends on your perspective and what you focus on. A little while ago, a friend shared with me an issue they were facing. They were in a horrific situation. I came away feeling absolutely no hope for that person. After praying about it for awhile, God showed me that He was far bigger than their problem. He then gave me a way forward for that person. It all depended on my perspective and what I was looking for. What I focused on, I saw.

Let me also say that this may appear very simplistic and I can assure you, it is. There are also times where you need to do deeper spiritual warfare and this doesn’t apply in its simplicity and I am not wanting to dismiss those times and circumstances. Instead, this is for general everyday use and as a reminder to look at what we are focusing on.

What are you focusing on and what are you seeing? What is God doing in that situation?

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: Give everyone a piece of paper and ask everyone to make an object or sculpture out of the paper to symbolise who God sees that they are in God’s Kingdom. Ask everyone to share what their sculpture means.

2. Group Activation: Get into small groups of 3-4 (not too many as the fewer people in your group, the more practice each person will get). Have a dice for each group. Take turns throwing the dice and answer the question depending on what number you throw. Each time choose which person in your group you give the prophetic word to. 1 = How God sees them dressed. 2 = What present God wants to give them. 3 = What sort of vehicle God sees them as. 4 = Something about their identity that God wants to show them / impress on them. 5 = If you were at a fun park, where would they be and why. 6 = What role they would have at the Olympics.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to highlight a child to you and His heart for them. Draw a picture to communicate God’s heart to them. Check that the picture is age appropriate and language appropriate for the child before giving it to them or pass it to their parent first.

4. Intermediate Activation: Open a newspaper and ask God to highlight a person’s name to you. Spend time with God asking Him to show you how He sees this person and their situation. Write this down. Ponder how you would deliver this to the person sharing God’s heart for them. Then read the article about this person and check the situation.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight a business owner to you and ask God to show you His heart for them and their business. Ask God to show you how to deliver it to this person.

Mantle of invisibility

Through the fort wallsEarlier this year, I was on my morning prayer walk and was pondering the fact that my 10 year old son was often overlooked. His older sister always seemed to get the limelight. She had just been filmed for a 5 minute television program that would be televised nationally. Before the film crew came to our house, they had initially decided to film both siblings and highlight them both but after a few minutes in our home, they completely excluded Josh in their actions and filming without verbalising anything to us. I was pondering the fact that here was a ten year old boy who had collected over 4,000 pairs of brand new socks for homeless people and distributed them within 8 months (now over 11,000 pairs) and that no-one seemed interested. As I was asking God about this, the thought ‘mantle of invisibility’ came to me. I had previously heard Arthur Burk’s teaching on this via YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osoFi4DE4Es). I asked God to highlight if there were any vows Josh had made at any stage, or us as his parents, about not wanting to be noticed, seen, or wanting to be disguised or hidden. (This is especially the case when children are being bullied and they may say “I wish I could be invisible”, or “I wish….. couldn’t see me” or “I don’t want my teacher to notice me”. This is also very applicable in the case of unwanted pregnancy’s and childhood abuse or anyone who has been a recipient of anger explosions. Hubby was a policeman in his earlier life and also made some comments along those lines when faced with situations hunting for murderers etc.)

After renouncing these vows/words and cutting off any judgements that have resulted from saying them, I then proceeded to pray a prayer similar to this. “Father God, can you please hide and shield Josh from those people and situations you don’t want him to be seen or noticed in and can you please shine your light on him and bring him to the attention of all those that you would want to have him highlighted before.” (The exact wording is not important, more the principle.)

After returning home from my walk, I went about my daily activities until early that afternoon when I received a phone call. The lady on the end of the line informed me that my son had been selected out of 1,000 other people to be filmed and shown on the national news about the local newspaper grants throughout the state. He was one of 1,000 applicants and they chose him and another person to feature on the news. I was gobsmacked. I immediately thought back to the morning’s walk and how I had asked God to highlight him in the areas God wanted to and to shield him from eyes he needed shielding from. Could God work it that quick?

I immediately knew then that a prayer similar to this definitely worked. I encourage everyone to pray something similar. Even yesterday, I prayed with a friend about her husband to renounce any vows he had said (eg he often says “I’m the quiet one, I don’t have a voice.”) and for God to shine His light on her hubby as he was often overlooked for jobs and ministry roles even though he was extremely qualified and suitable for them.

Usually we experience something like this when we have been through a time when we didn’t fully trust God to be big enough to protect us. We had to resort to hiding ourselves or wanting to be hidden as we couldn’t trust that God would have it all under control. Therefore part of our dealing with this needs to be repenting for taking control and not trusting God in that situation.

Do you see a similar pattern in your life? I encourage you to listen to Arthur Burk’s YouTube recording on ‘mantle of invisibility’ and to pray and ask God to reveal to you any time and any words you may have said about wanting to not be noticed or taken seriously or highlighted. Have you ever said/thought/wished “I wish no-one would see me”, “I wish I wasn’t born”, “I wish I didn’t exist”, “Please don’t let anyone see me at the moment” etc.

Another angle of viewing this is to look at your life and see if there are numerous times when you are not noticed, when you haven’t been selected for something when you were the obvious choice and the most qualified. When you contribute something worthwhile to a conversation, are you simply ignored and not acknowledged?

I encourage you to pray over yourself and also each of your children that God would hide you from those people and situations that would seek to harm you and for God to shine His light on you in the places and situations and before the people He wants you to be highlighted before.

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: Ask God to show/tell/give you each an idea of someone who is not well known to your family but whom you can show God’s love to as a family and in what way. Share together what God has shown/told you. Then make time to share God’s love in the way you have highlighted.

2. Group Activation: Have a time of being quiet before God as a group, each person asking God for a prophetic word or picture for someone in the group to whom they don’t know very well. Then allow time for people to share in the big group, those prophetic words that you just received.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to show/tell/give you a prophetic word that will fit in with the flow for your weekly church service about what God would love to do or how He would love to move during that time. Try and do this before you go to church and then sit on it and don’t share it with anyone. During the service, see how it would fit in with the flow of what God is doing that day at church. (This prophetic word will be something you won’t share with anyone. It is a good discipline to receive a word and to be able to sit on it before sharing it or when training to never share it.)

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you someone to whom you walk past on a regular basis but to whom you don’t really notice. Ask God to show you how He sees them and craft that into a prophetic word that you can share with that person the next time you walk past them.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time being quiet before God asking him to show you which department/area in the church He would like to speak to you about and give a prophetic word to. Write it down and let it be viewed by an appropriate trusted person within your church before passing it along to that department.