The giver also wishes you to accept and unwrap the gift so that it can be used for what it is intended for. They also usually love to see your reaction and delight.

The same applies to the prophetic words that we have received. Prophecies are useless just hearing them and laying them aside.

Our prophetic words come from God, through the lens of the person prophesying. Imagine God’s delight in seeing you start to unwrap and process your prophecies.

In my last two blog posts, I have looked at my testimony of the benefits of receiving a prophetic word and the initial steps to take when you receive a prophetic word.

This blog post addresses the next steps to take in unpacking your prophetic word, especially looking at how it impacts your identity.

The following is the process I go through to help me understand and apply the prophecies I have received in my own life.

1. Print off a copy of your prophetic word. I love to double space it so that it is easier to write on and highlight. I also carry this copy around in my handbag so that when I find myself in a situation where I need to wait eg at the Doctor’s or when picking up my kids, I can read and pray through the prophecy. This way it becomes ingrained in my soul and spirit.

2. Grab a set of highlighters, coloured pencils, textas etc so that you can highlight words and phrases with different colours.

Read through your prophetic word and highlight with different colours:

• Any words or phrases repeated
• Words that really impact you or are very meaningful
• Words that keep being repeated in other prophetic words you have received
• Any themes
• Any promises
• Any conditions
• Any Bible verses – look them up and write them out fully.
• Any sense of timing

Several years ago, a lady I was mentoring received a prophetic word from my husband. My husband had written in the prophetic word for her “It is time. It is time. It is time.” About six months later she received a word from a world-renowned prophet. This international prophet said to her “It is time. It is time. It is time.” A couple of months later, another world-renowned prophet also gave her a prophetic word and said, “It is time. It is time. It is time.” Not only was the phrase repeated three times by each person, but the three phrases were exactly the same by the three people. This lady needed to pay particular attention to those words.

Whenever I have received a prophetic word, the themes of healing and restoration are emphasized. Thus, I tend to look for them now. I also, though, love looking for new themes. We have recently received some prophetic words about promises and we are using these to partner with our faith in seeing these promises fulfilled.

3. See the opportunity

The prophetic word you receive is an opportunity to partner with God to become the person you need to be so that the prophetic word can be fulfilled. It is not an automatic process. An individual prophetic word, apart from if you were Jesus in the Bible, is conditional. We need to step into it and grow to become the person whom this prophecy speaks about. When we partner with the Holy Spirit and lean into the character and identity changes and growth, we unlock the prophetic word in our life.

I have had a number of prophetic words given to me about my gaze being awestruck with the gaze of God, my eyes being locked with the eyes of God, the Lord and I having the same gaze. This was a foreign concept to me at the time so I went on a journey of exploring this and looking at God through new eyes, trying to look into His eyes, focusing on God and drawing near to Him so that I knew where His gaze was so that I could join Him.

Partnering with our prophetic word is an opportunity to go on a journey with God to become the person He created us to be. It is an opportunity to look at our identity, that of who God created us to be. Our prophetic word usually highlights how God sees us, how we are known in heaven. There may well be a ‘gap’ between how God sees us and how we see ourselves and the prophetic word is an invitation to close that gap.

Grab your coloured highlighters again and highlight:

• Any words that speak about who you are
• Any words that speak about how God sees you
• How you are known in heaven
• Who God wants to be for me
• What part of God’s nature is an invitation for me to grow in?

4. Get a large sheet of paper and label it “My Identity”.

Write down all those words you underlined that speak about your identity and who God wants to be for you. Use this as a working sheet. Group ‘like words’ together, draw mind-map type diagrams, be as creative as you want whilst you are drawing all the identity words out of your prophetic word. Find out how God wants to encourage, strengthen and build you up from your prophetic word (1 Corinthians 14:3 “But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.”) Write them down on your sheet of paper. Then look at them and see what really sticks out to you.

Part of our mandate for being on earth is for us to grow in the likeness of Christ. Therefore, look at your prophetic word and highlight any aspects of God’s nature that are spoken about and that are an invitation for you to grow in. Peace and joy are often mentioned in prophetic words. If peace is mentioned, then that is God’s provision for you. The same with joy. If you currently are not the most joyful person, but your prophecy mentions joy, then this is your opportunity to access God’s provision of joy for you and to grow into your new identity of being a joyful person. How do you do that?

• Choose joy over misery. Make a conscious choice whenever you are feeling miserable or not joyful to be joyful.
• Ask God to help you.
• Find all the Bible verses that speak about joy. Read them over and over.
• Worship God.
• Practice turning your heart to God whenever you don’t feel joyful.
• Meditate on God and His Word
• Look for the joy in your everyday life. Find things to be grateful for as people who are grateful are joyful.
• Look at practical things you can do – practice smiling, read comics, do silly things, be around joyful people.
• Look at what hinders you from being joyful and address those issues.

Our transformation begins with how we think. Proverbs 23:7 says “For how he thinks in his heart, so he is”. What we think about ourselves determines who we become. This then influences what we do.

5. Summarize

Look at the words you have highlighted and the words you have written on your large sheet of paper. Bring it together to summarise:

• What God is telling me about my identity
• Who I need to become for this prophecy to be fulfilled
• Who God wants to be for me to help me become that person
• What God is developing in my character

Next post I am going to look at working with your prophetic word to reveal your destiny and calling.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every week I list 5 prophetic activations/exercises under children/family, group, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The purpose of these exercises is to practice to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and see and sense God 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:  Go for a walk in a park or a bush setting and look at trees and leaves. If this is not suitable, gather a variety of different leaves beforehand. Ask God to show everyone what sort of leaf each family member would be and why. Then share that with each family member.

2. Group Activation: Ask each group member to bring a baby photo of themselves. Then ask each person to choose a baby photo to prophesy over by writing a prophetic word for that person in the baby photo. If you are meeting as a group over the internet, ask for the photos to be submitted to you prior, then make a collage from the photos and allocate people the photo they are to prophesy over. It would be easier to have them take turns speaking the prophecy out and then after they have prophesied, to identify who that baby photo belongs to.

3. Beginner Activation: Select a baby photo of yourself. Ask Father God to show you His heart for this baby and to reveal His thoughts and desires about this baby. Spend time with Father God exploring and enjoying His heart for you.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight to you a family who is trying to adopt/foster a child or a family already fostering a child. Write/draw a prophetic word for that family including the child. Ask God how you are to deliver it to that family.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to give you a prophetic word for the United States of America and for the forthcoming election. Use what God reveals to you to pray into regarding the future of the United States & the President, and not necessarily share it with anyone else.