“I will never…”

Words we speak over ourselves can become self fulfilling prophecies.

When I was in year 10 at high school, I was a School captain. A boy in our grade had mental development issues and he used to hang around me because I was nice to him and took the time to say hello. I can remember being teased about how people thought he was my boyfriend. To make it clear that that was definitely not the case, I would say, “I am never going to marry a boy with red hair and glasses.” Eight years later, I married a guy (not the same one) with red hair and glasses.

“I will never…”

When we say, “I will never…”, we are pronouncing a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’. Self fulfilling prophecies will always come back to bite you. We need to realise that when we say these words, we are releasing into the atmosphere something that puts into motion the very same thing to happen to us.

Can you ever remember being embarrassed by your mother as a teenager and you would say, “I can’t wait until I am an adult. I will never….”. Twenty years later, you suddenly realise that exactly what your mum did you are now doing.

Do you ever wonder why people who say “I never win any competitions” never actually win anything?

 

  Are there times in your life you are using those words now?

 

If you have children, have a listen to your children. Do they ever say it? We can help our children by modelling a life that is free of these negative statements. One of our tasks as a parent is to help our children not fall into the habit of stating “I will never…”. I encourage you to take a few moments to look back on your life and see if there were any times you said, “I will never…” Share these with your kids. Help them to see that it is not in their best interest to speak these negative words into their life.

If we slip up, we say sorry and make amends.

An effective prayer I find useful is, “Lord Jesus, can you please bring to my mind any negative words I’ve said that I will never do…. Lord, I am so sorry I said that. Please forgive me. In Jesus’ name, I cut off the effect of those words especially in regard to self fulfilling prophecies and the judgements I made about that person and situation. Amen.”

 

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 everyone ask God to show, tell or give them the name of an article of clothing that best describes something about the person on their left. Ask them to ask God why that particular article of clothing best describes that person. Share with that person.

2. Group Activation: Gather an assortment of items from nature eg stones, feather, leaves, twigs, soil, seeds etc. Spread them out over an area eg on a table, section of floor etc. Ask everyone to pair up and then find an item that they can use from this assortment from nature to prophesy over their partner. Encourage them to go deeper with their prophesying by looking at the feel, sound, look, smell, use etc of the item and prophesy from that, asking God for clarification and extension.

3. Beginner Activation: Grab a blank sheet of paper and start doodling on it drawing a key. Be creative with God and the drawing of the key. Ask God to then show you how you are similar to that key and ask Him what He wants you to unlock or what He wants to unlock for you. Enjoy exploring this with God.

4. Intermediate Activation: Choose a person close to you. Ask God to show you a road sign for that person. Ask God what that road sign means for that person, then share it with them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God for a prophetic word for the Principal of a school near you. Write it out in a letter, making sure that it is encouraging and comforting and doesn’t have any christian language in it and then send it to them.

Growing your spirit – Living from a Place of Victory (part 10)

Twenty eight years ago, hubby and I drove into an Australian town well know for its New Age and witchcraft practices. We briefly looked around the town for a gift shop and for somewhere to eat but before we had time to find anywhere, I asked hubby if we could drive on to the next town. I sensed something ‘awful’ in the atmosphere and something like a fear descended on me. Fast forward twenty years and hubby, the kids and I drove back into that same town and it ‘felt’ completely different. We loved the place so much that we decided to revisit it again on that holiday.

 

                        What was the difference?

 

As far as I could tell, there was a Christian church that was having a massive impact in the town ministering to the New Age community. But the New Age and witchcraft presence was still ‘thick’. I believe that the main difference lay within me. I had grown and matured as a Christian, but more importantly, I now knew my identity as a daughter of the Most High King. I was also aware of ‘brushing’ off negative atmospheres (https://www.unlockingthegold.com/spiritual-hygiene-living-from-a-place-of-victory-part-8/). Most of all though, I believe the greatest difference was that my spirit had grown enormously and could now ‘defend’ itself instead of being intimidated.

 

How do you ‘grow’ your spirit?

Just as your physical body needs nutrition to grow and your soul needs love and care and intellectual stimulation to grow, so too does your spirit needs things to help it grow.

 

I have identified the top five things I have done to grow my spirit.

  1. Worship God regularly.
  2. Grow your identity in God. Go after your inner healing.
  3. Speak/pray the Bible over yourself.
  4. Pray in tongues often ie on a daily basis. 1 Corinthians 14:4 says “anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies (or builds) themselves up”. One of the most effective methods is to pray in tongues each day.
  5. Bless your spirit.

 

How do I ‘bless my spirit’?

I first became aware of the huge impact of calling one spirit to attention and blessing it after I found some teaching from Arthur Burk and Sylvia Gunther (www.theslg.com) and started practicing on my family. I immediately noticed a difference in our son and how he loved his spirit being blessed. Our son is a spiritual thermostat. He easily and automatically ‘picks up’ the spiritual atmosphere of a room, place or land region and acts this out. This caused numerous hassles earlier in his life until we became more fully aware of what was happening. (A particular city in Australia has the ruling spirit of rebellion over it and when we stayed there, our son became very rebellious. We tried disciplining him without any effect and began to doubt our parenting until I ‘connected the dots’ and realised what was happening. As soon as I identified it, our son’s behaviour immediately normalised.)

Thus, when I began calling my family’s spirits to attention and reading a blessing over them of a night, this son loved it. Each night he would ask me to ‘do that thing that makes me feel good’.

As a side note, I used to call people’s spirit forth eg “Jane I call your spirit forth” but a Pastor’s wife became quite anxious about that as if I was trying to make people’s spirit travel. Thus, I now call their spirit to attention. Look at it as if you are asking them to stand up on the inside and take notice. Eg “Jane, I call your spirit to attention” or “Jane, I call your spirit to take notice of what I am about to say”.

Over time, I have noticed a huge effect on people whenever I bless people’s spirit. I use this all the time in our Church’s Healing Rooms at the end of each person’s time of ministry. In fact, it is uncommon for me to not use it when praying for someone.

David Tensen has a great course on this (www.davidtensen.com). He bases his blessing on 4 D’s – delight, design, destiny and dominion. I can never seem to remember the 4 D’s so I just ask Father God to show or tell me what to bless each individual person with.

I have crafted a short blessing for you, my readers. Please feel free to try it and speak it over yourself, inserting your name into it. I have several friends who each night will call their spirit to attention and bless their own spirit (& their spouse’s if they are married) with a blessing. There is no magic formula for what to say. Go with what you feel Father God is saying to you. With my kids, I will often bless their spirit along the lines of their prophetic words, the giftings they have, their dreams and their sleeping and relationship with Father God, Holy Spirit and Jesus.

I also find that if people have their eyes open and look into mine whilst I am blessing them, there seems to be a greater impact on the person. Try it and see.

 

Blessing:

“(Your name), I call your spirit to attention and bless you with knowing that Father God loves you so much. There is nothing you could do to make Him love you any more or any less. (Your name), Father God had you in mind before He created the world. He ordained your parents, time in history and birth date. I bless you with knowing how precious and valuable you are to God, your family, friends and community. I bless your spirit with knowing that God has gifted you with special gifts and has created you with your personality. He so loves you.

(Your name), I bless your spirit with realising in a deeper way today the reality of God’s love in your life. I bless you with experiencing today Father God romancing you in a fresh new way, with you seeing, hearing and experiencing his extravagant and generous nature and goodness and kindness. I bless you with receiving His kisses of joy today. I bless you as you walk out the next few days and weeks and months ahead that you will see the hand of Father God, Holy Spirit and Jesus on your life in a new way. I bless you with amazing insight and discernment from God, with hearing Him at a deeper level and seeing what He is up to in the spiritual world.

(Your name), I bless you that wherever you walk, you carry the peace of God and change atmospheres. That people will know that a child of the Most High God has been there with you. I bless you with leaving a lingering fragrance of the presence of God wherever you step. In Jesus name, Amen.”

Please feel free to forward this blog post to any of your friends and encourage them to subscribe to receive my blog posts on a weekly basis. Thank you.

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: Chat about what ‘blessing’ is. Have a time of focusing on each individual person and ask God to show, tell or give to everyone else some words to bless that person with. Then all say it over that person. Then move on to the next person. At the end, feel free to share how it felt.

2. Group Activation: Pair up and spend a few minutes asking God what He would have you bless your partner with in regards to the 4D’s – delight, design, destiny and dominion. Then release the blessing over your partner.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time this week intentionally calling your spirit to attention and blessing it with hearing God’s voice clearly. Also ask God each time what else to bless your spirit with.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you someone to bless today. Make or buy a gift for that person that represents the essence of what you are blessing in them and give that to them during the time of releasing the blessing over them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to reveal to you an unreached people group. Spend time with God crafting a blessing for that people group. Ask God to then show you how often He would like you to say that blessing, speaking as if over that people group.

Rest – Living from a Place of Victory (part 9)

I personally believe that one of the greatest tools we have to live a life of victory is to live from a place of rest.

But what does it mean to live from a place of rest?

I used to think that it meant setting aside a day per week to ‘rest’. Not work. Like a Sabbath. God modelled this when He created the world. He ‘worked’ on six days and on the seventh day, He rested. This is a brilliant idea and one that God modelled for us. Our family has personally found it hard to carve out that day of solitude in amidst a busy lifestyle.

God didn’t work flat out and then stop to rest. He paced Himself. Yes. He still stopped and rested but He didn’t become frantic and frazzled.

When the kids were small and I was busy all week with them, hubby would look after them of a Thursday evening and that was my time ‘off’. I would set it aside and go out shopping. I loved having something to look forward to but I gradually came to realise that it didn’t ‘fill’ me up. In fact, it seemed to drain me more – the loud music, the bright lights, surrounded by heaps of people, busy shops, racing around trying to get a lot of things done. I needed to use that time instead to ‘chill’, to be at peace with myself and my surroundings, to be filled up by spending time with God and nature.

Living from a place of rest is completely different to setting aside a certain period of ‘time’. When you realise that the opposite of ‘rest’ can also be ‘striving’ then it changes the equation.

Being at ‘peace’ with God and inviting Him into every aspect of our life by turning our hearts frequently to Him through the day to listen and converse together seems a lot more effective. Our internal rest/peace grows and we live out of that. Thus, when we encounter external ‘noise’, disagreements, frustrations, we are quick to retreat to that place of peace and rest and operate out of that area. I find that I tend to let more things go. Those ‘things’ that used to annoy me no longer have the same grip over me.

Does it really matter?

I find that I often ask myself that question as I live from that place of rest. This allows me to then brush stuff off and not let it become a ‘big’ deal in my life or to not spend time and emotional energy on something that isn’t really worth it.

Perhaps the most well know person who managed to operate out of a lifestyle of rest is Brother Lawrence. He writes in “The Practice of the Presence of God” – “by dwelling in the presence of God, he has established such a sweet communion with the Lord that his spirit abides, without much effort, in the restful peace of God. In this centre of rest, he is filled with a faith that equips him to handle anything that comes into his life.”

To cultivate a lifestyle of rest, here are some pointers.

  1. Be still. Psalm 46:10 talks about being still and internally at rest as that is when we truly know God. It is not reliant on our external world being quiet. Delight in a period of solitude and quietness with God on a daily basis.
  2. Live a lifestyle with margin. Allow extra time, energy, thought space, finances, & room in our life for friendships etc so that nothing creates alarm or tension. People often ask me complex questions especially about God or healing and my reply is that I just accept what God does and says as I don’t have the emotional energy to ‘waste’ time exploring that issue in a complex way or to give it a space in my life. If we are driving somewhere, we allow ourselves a few minutes extra for any interruptions. In preparing for times of ministry eg Healing Rooms, we arise earlier and give ourselves some extra time and space for preparation.
  3. Guard your peace. Fiercely guard your peace. This is my personal thermostat for when I realise that I have not been living from a place of rest. When I find anger arising within me, I realise that I have not been ‘resting’ with God as much. If a car driver cuts you off, do you get angry? What comes out of your mouth – blessing or cursing? When we need to leave at a certain time, giving the kids & hubby a 5 minute warning helps in our household. The same with talking about expectations. We find that this helps the family know what is expected and therefore we are able to operate out of peace more often.
  4. Spending time meditating on God – His goodness, His character, His attributes.
  5. Constant interaction with God about the small things in life, the daily grind, the emotions and feelings. Abide with God. Enjoy delighting and wondering with God in the small things.
  6. Increasing your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. Exploring new ways of communicating with Him and being open to Him.
  7. Find your ‘markers’ that let you know when you are not living out of a place of rest. When do you notice that you are striving? Are wanting to be heard or noticed or recognised?

We can really only truly release rest externally when we have cultivated rest internally. Jesus calmed the storm (Mark 4:39) with His internal world changing the external world. King Jehoshaphat discovered that as Israel rested, God fought and won for them (2 Chronicles 20). Verse 15 says “For the battle is not yours but God’s”. Wow – Imagine if we lived every day out of that premise.

Do you continually release rest and peace into your world?

What would others say about you?

Do you bring chaos with you?

How often are you contacting your prayer warriors to pray for ‘emergencies’?

What is one thing you can implement this week to begin to live a lifestyle of abiding with God and resting in His presence?

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: Intentionally create some down time this week to go for a walk as a family. As you walk, ask everyone to find where they see God on the walk and to bring back something that reminds them of that. Also ask everyone to find something on the walk that reflects what God is showing them about another family member. Stop and share it with that family member.

2. Group Activation: Have an extended soaking time (time of meditation) where everyone meditates on the goodness of God. Allow time at the end of that for people to share their experience and what they discovered about God and themselves.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time this week intentionally creating space for resting and abiding with God. Ask Him to show you areas of your life that He would like you to change.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight an area of unrest or chaos in your world (personal or area of living). Ask God to show you what He wants to release and do there. Prophesy over that area and release peace.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to bring to your mind a current television news reader. Spend time with God crafting a prophetic word for that person. Make sure that it is encouraging and be aware of your language and make sure it is not full of christian words. Send it to the person care of the television station.