Encountering God part 1

The first time someone asked me to lead a class in an encounter with God, I was terrified. I was teaching at our church’s college on the prophetic (hearing God), and the Co-Ordinator began each session with a time of encountering God. I was okay with experiencing God for myself, but had never led others to encounter Him apart from when I led people to commit to Christ. The Co-Ordinator had always manifested physically, e.g. by shaking or a physical reaction etc when encountering God, and I wasn’t into physical manifestations. I felt out of my depth.

I encouraged my assistant to lead the encounter instead.

Later, as I reflected on leading others to encounter God, various truths replaced the lies in my mind. One truth was that we don’t need to have a physical manifestation to prove that we have encountered God.

God is amazing. He is so unique. So present. So everywhere. God is so concerned with the individual.

God is not a cookie-cutter, releasing the same experience to everyone.

God is never short on time, so He never takes shortcuts and gives the same stuff to everyone in a hurry.

God loves everyone. He desires intimacy and a relationship with us all. God will do virtually anything for us to experience Him.

God is a God of many and the individual.

Thus, it may differ completely from how others encounter God when we encounter God. There is no right or wrong. In saying that, you will know it is not God if it doesn’t meet the character qualities of God. E.g. Satan can masquerade as the angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), so if we see an angel of light that is unkind and unjust or deceiving, that is not God.

How do we know if we have encountered God?

How do we know if we have encountered God–we will be changed. There will always be fruit from the encounter. You may experience peace or joy, or healing. Maybe you feel calmer or have received an answer to a decision. You may feel closer to Jesus. A truth may have ‘popped’ into your head. You may be more aware of God’s presence, power, person, and delight. You may have heard, seen, sensed, or felt God.

Encountering God means you experience God’s Kingdom values–e.g. peace instead of fear. Joy instead of blandness or lack. In an encounter with God, you can often experience movement, whether there is a movement in the grass background or you and Jesus moving, e.g. running together, dancing together. I often experience Jesus leading the way and showing me things. Light and colour will predominately fill the encounter, as they belong to God’s Kingdom.

There will always be good fruit from an encounter with Jesus.

Where can we encounter God?

Anywhere. Wherever God is, there is an opportunity and availability to encounter Him. Encounters are not limited to a church service. I often encounter God walking on the beach or around our neighbourhood. Often, we can experience God unexpectedly, amid pain and suffering, despair, joy and laughter, with friends, or alone. Most times I am showering, or when ironing, I encounter God. I turn my affection to God, my thoughts to God, and imagine myself with Him. He always responds to an invitation to be close to us.

Some examples from the Bible:

The Bible is full of people who encountered God. Saul was an enemy of God with a fierce determination to kill as many Christians as possible. God met him unexpectedly on the road to Damascus in Acts 9 with a blinding light, resulting in Saul becoming blind until Ananias prayed for him and Saul was healed.

In Isaiah 6, Isaiah wrote how He encountered God in the year of King Uzziah’s death. He saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on the throne. Above Him were seraphim, each with six wings.

In Numbers 22, the angel of the Lord stood in the middle of the road and stopped the donkey. The donkey saw the angel of the Lord, but Balaam didn’t. Thus, not only people encountered God.

In Acts 2, many people experienced a sound like the blowing of a violent wind from heaven. Tongues of fire rested on them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. It was a time when many people encountered God.

Many people have asked me how they can encounter God regularly as an experience, not just in the initial experience of deciding to follow Jesus. Thus, I will write a series of blog posts outlining simple ways you can encounter God wherever you are.

An encounter experience for you to try:

A simple encounter you may enjoy is meditating on God. I find it easy to do this if I am somewhere comfortable and have music playing softly in the background. I turn my thoughts and affections to God. I imagine myself in a favourite place with Jesus beside me. I then ask Jesus a question and wait for Him to reply. I chat with Jesus about any concerns or queries I have or spend time restfully in His presence.

Many people call this ‘soaking’. A great video that explains this further is a free resource from Beth Kennedy if you sign up for her blog. You can find it here: https://godisgoodstories.com/

In the next blog post, I will unpack encountering God further along with a different experience for you to try. The five prophetic activations listed below will also contain different ways of encountering God.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every blog post 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:  Gather paper and drawing supplies. Ask everyone to imagine they are at a park with God. Ask them to draw the scene ie what they are doing and where God is and what He is doing etc. Instead of drawing, you may actually want to go to a park and briefly ask these questions when you arrive. Ask everyone to look to see where God is and what He is doing. Encourage everyone to share.

2. Group Activation: Get into pairs. Each person asks God to show or tell them a weapon He wants to give to their partner and why. Spend a few minutes asking God more questions about the weapon, then share with their partner.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend a few minutes with God, asking Him what game He would love to play with you. Go with the first thought through your mind and ask further questions of God to understand more fully what game God wants to play with you and why.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to bring to your mind someone who is currently fearful. Ask God to show you His heart towards that person and how God would love you to respond to that person.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to show you His heart for the people of Ukraine and/or Russia. Spend time asking God further questions about His desires for these countries. Speak aloud a declaration or a prophetic word from your time with God.

Praying BIG

Six years ago, when our daughter was 12-years-old, she had an amazing year of opportunities being opened up for her to speak to people she wouldn’t usually be able to speak to. She was awarded the Shire Young Citizen of the Year and spoke at least a dozen times to several thousand people at Shire events. She also had afternoon tea with the then Australian Prime Minister, Mr Tony Abbott, and gave him a prophetic picture and prophetic word.

This started during a family devotional time at the beginning of the year where we were asking God some questions and listening to Him speak to us. Our daughter felt God was going to create opportunities for her to speak to people from all over the world. (Mind you, she didn’t enjoy speaking at that time and it is amazing to see her speaking in front of people now when 12 years ago she refused to go on stage in the end-of-year dance concert because she didn’t want people looking at her.) Since she had heard this from God, we then prayed into it and asked God to create those opportunities, and we started declaring this. That year she spoke at all the shire citizenship ceremonies where people were becoming citizens from hundreds of countries, many secondary schools, and gave a ‘TED’ to several hundred senior high school students just after the YWAM Founder spoke at YWAM GoFest.

What has this got to do with Praying BIG? This was something that started with her hearing from God, and we then started praying into it. I would never have thought to pray for her to speak and share her story to so many people and have tremendous opportunities of speaking in front of some of the world’s influential people.

What are the possibilities if we asked God what big prayer should we be praying and declaring for ourselves and our families this year?

I encourage you to take a few moments, either by yourself or with your family, put on some quiet worship music and ask God to show or tell you what BIG prayers you could start praying for yourself and your family. Ask God to literally ‘blow you out of the water’ with these prayers that He fills your mind with. Then go ahead, write them down and declare them out aloud.

Boldly asking God for opportunities and then declaring what God shows and tells you is ‘normal’ in the Bible. Faith is “the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”. (Hebrews 11:1) Read through the Bible, and you will see countless examples of people being stretched and grown and then affecting nations, usually starting from hearing or sensing from God and believing what God said. For example, in Genesis 6, Noah took God at His Word and began building a boat when there was no likelihood of rain. This would have seemed ludicrous to those around him. Did that stop him? No.

Our daughter heard from God, then we believed her and began boldly declaring that God would create opportunities for her to speak and make an impact. Within several weeks, she had received an invitation to have afternoon tea with the then Australian Prime Minister. Upon opening the official envelope, we laughed and then rejoiced. God was opening doors we couldn’t open. We then ‘walked through that door. One of the first thoughts was that it was a fabulous opportunity to give him a prophecy. Thus, we all wrote prophetic words and drew prophetic pictures, and our daughter gave them to the Prime Minister. Many friends later commented that they would never have thought of doing that. Perhaps that is why God chose our daughter to meet with the Prime Minister, knowing that our family were already operating in this gifting and prepared to take every opportunity we could.

Are you prepared for when God opens the door you have been knocking at?

What do you need to believe God for today?

Our words are powerful. Whenever we speak, we are releasing the potential for positive or negative effect into the atmosphere. Our words have the power to create, to form and fashion something out of nothing and to change outcomes. In Genesis 1, God spoke, and the world was created. He has given us the same creative power to create outcomes by the words we speak. Do you boldly declare what God has revealed to you, partnering with God in opening the door and bringing it into being?

         God’s Word does not return empty, and our words don’t either.

The Bible says a lot about our use of words:

  • Isaiah 55:11 “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
  • Proverbs 18:21 “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
  • Proverbs 12:18 “The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
  • Romans 4:17 “the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.”

I encourage you today to:

1. Ask God to reveal to you something big He wants to do through you. Dream BIG on how you would like to partner with God on this for the year.

2. Write this into a declaration and begin speaking it out.

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:  Compile an assortment of magazines, scissors and positive ‘words’. Spend time as a family/group sorting through the words and magazines for a ‘word’ that stands out to each person. Write that word down and chat about that word and how it applies to that person for this year. You may like to make a poster about that word and place in a prominent place or bedroom.

2. Group Activation: As a group, practising hearing, sensing and seeing together for a Bible verse for the group as a whole for this year. Have people share and come to a conclusion. Spend time chatting about what you have learnt about getting a ‘prophecy’ together for the group.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God and ask Him to reveal to you a special Bible verse that is applicable to you this year. Pray into that verse and how it applies to your life.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God for a Bible verse or chapter or Bible character to prophesy over your family this year. Spend time with God, opening further up the meaning and application.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him for a Bible verse for your nation for this year. Ask Him what you are to do with this and how you are to proclaim it.

What to do with your Prophetic Words part 5

Prophecy does not end as soon as you have received a prophetic word. It is only the beginning. Prophecy is powerful, and your responsibility as the recipient is to activate it in your life.

Reading through Jeremiah in the Bible recently, I was challenged about my prophetic words, particularly working towards the fulfilment of them.

In Jeremiah 1:12 it says: “The Lord said to me, ‘You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled’.” Sure, that was speaking of a particular time in Israel’s history, but I am sure that God still watches to see what we will do with the prophetic words spoken over our lives.

When we actively pursue that which God has communicated to us, how it must thrill God’s heart. Alternatively, when we are overwhelmed with the enormity and allow that to stagnate us or when we procrastinate in working towards the fulfilment of our prophetic words, I wonder how God feels.

Sometimes those prophecies can seem so vast and impossible that we almost disregard them and thus do not carry out any action towards the fulfilment of them. Other times, we can become side-tracked.

My purpose in explaining the steps in ‘What to do with your prophetic words’ is so you can take delight in becoming who God is calling you to be and impacting the world for that which He created you.

In what area of your life is God watching to see that you fulfil His word in your life?

Over the last four blog posts, I have explained the benefits of having a prophetic word, the first steps to take when you receive a prophetic word, and how to identify your identity words and destiny words from your prophecies and work with them. This blog post addressed the practicalities of implementing your prophetic words into your everyday life.

At the end of the last blog post, I encouraged you to dream with God. To imagine what your future may look like if your prophetic words came true. You were encouraged to:

  • Get your notes from that session and highlight the steps you will need to take to get from where you are to where you will be once you fulfil your prophetic words.
  • List the practical things that you would need to grow in.
  • Look at the first 2-3 steps you would need to take. Write them down. Ask God to impress on you the way forward. You need to take responsibility to action these steps. You can’t expect God to pluck you out of your current circumstances and land you right in your fulfilled prophecy. You may find it helpful to grab another sheet of paper and draw the steps and label them.

List your next 3 steps.

We need to be intentional in who we are becoming and what we are doing. It can be overwhelming when we have too many options. Thus, narrow down your responsibility at this moment by:

  • Writing the first three steps you need to take.
  • Writing a date, beside each step, when you hope to have accomplished this.
  • Highlighting that which is under God’s control in one colour and that which is under your control in another colour.
  • Look at what you need to stop doing in your life to allow you time, finance and energy to accomplish this.

Ask yourself these questions:

  • What is the difference between where I am now and where I need to be to fulfil this prophetic word?
  • What obstacles are ahead of me?
  • How do I overcome these obstacles?
  • What are the things under God’s control?
  • What are the things under my control?
  • Do I have enough faith to carry out what God is asking me?
  • How can I increase my faith for this assignment?
  • What practical skills do I need to gain?
  • What areas of my character need growing/changing?
  • How am I going to do that?
  • What provisions/finances do I need to carry this assignment out?
  • What opportunities/invitation do I have to grow in?
  • What area of my relationship with God is He inviting me to grow in?
  • What is my next step?
  • Is there anything I need to stop doing so I have time, finances, and energy to do this next step?
  • Is there anyone I need to connect with for assistance, development, acquiring skills or qualifications?

Accountability:

I have found that the times in my life when I get someone else to hold me accountable for some goals I have set, I achieve those goals. Needing to meet with someone else and knowing they will ask me how I am going in certain areas helps to keep me accountable and ploughing towards where I am hoping to be. I also find that it is helpful if that person is a person of prayer and will support me by praying for me.

If you have a mentor, it is fantastic to give them a copy of your prophetic words and your next steps so they can see where God is calling you and how to assist.

Who are you going to ask to hold you accountable as you work towards fulfilling these first three steps in seeing your prophetic word come to fruition?

Craft a prophetic declaration.

Every time we speak, we are creating an atmosphere and an outcome. Our words can bring life and power. We can use our words to bring a breakthrough into our current situation. We can speak truth into the atmosphere and engage our future with who God says we are becoming and what we will be doing.

The Bible says a lot about our use of words:

  • Isaiah 55:11 “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
  • Proverbs 18:21 “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
  • Romans 4:17 “…the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.”

What we decree and declare brings life and power. Decreeing and declaring speak of commanding, ordering, bringing into being, agreeing in the spiritual to change the physical. Write a prophetic declaration about who you are becoming and what you will be doing.

I encourage you to keep your declaration short and to the point. When I restrict my declaration to a few sentences, I can easily memorize it and speak it over myself numerous times each day. I also write it out and stick it on the bathroom mirror so that when I look in the mirror, I see my declaration and speak it over myself.

I also encourage you to write your declarations in the first person eg “I am a prayer warrior. I will bring healing to ….”

Look at your sheet of paper and choose the words that speak of your identity and calling. Put those words into a declaration.

I begin like this. “I decree and declare that God sees me as….

My calling and purpose in life is…..

I decree and declare that God wants to be …… for me during this season.”

Once you have written your declaration, I encourage you to find a place where you can say your declaration aloud. Practice saying it aloud several times. Then shout it out. I suggest you also find a place where you can be elevated while you shout out your declaration. This changes the atmosphere and engages your spirit differently. When we do this, we are partnering with God’s intentions for our future and helping Him create it. When we declare our future in the same way, the same tone, the same intentionality, and certainty as God declares it, our spirit engages and comes alive.

Finally, write your summary:

  • My decree and declaration
  • The next three steps I need to take.
  • What I need to stop doing to make time to pursue this.
  • Who I need to hold myself accountable to in this journey.
  • Suggested dates for review.
  • Set aside time in your diary to sit with God and review how it is going, read over your prophetic words again, pray through it all.

Saturate all this with prayer and worship, spending time with God, asking Him to reveal more through this process. Enjoy the journey!!

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:  Bake a batch of biscuits and make icing in several different colours. Gather piping tools for writing with icing. Encourage everyone to sit around the table and decorate a biscuit for various people eg each family member. Ask God to show what word, design, colour to decorate each individual biscuit with that communicates how God sees that person. Then distribute the biscuits to those people. Enjoy eating the biscuits and chatting about how God sees them.

2. Group Activation: Ask everyone to bring a gift beginning with the letter ‘B’. Encourage people to get into pairs. Every person has 1 minute to give their partner the gift plus prophesy over them about how that gift relates to them and how God sees them and their future.

3. Beginner Activation: Open your phone/computer and type ‘song heart’ into search. Ask God to highlight one of the song titles that appear on your screen. Spend time with God unpacking that song title and how applicable it is to your life. As God to reveal His perspective on that to you and His heart for you.

4. Intermediate Activation: Spend time with God seeking Him for His view on your partner or close friend. Ask God to reveal something significant to you about this person and their future. Lean into God and ask Him to flesh it out more for you, together with implications and when you are to share it with this person.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him for His heart on COVID-19, especially in regard to a vaccine etc. Ask God to download to you more about this and the future of your area in regard to COVID-19. Ask God to show you whether you are meant to share this with anyone and, if so, with whom.

What to do with your Prophetic Words part 4

In the previous few blog posts, I have looked at what to do with your prophetic word concerning using it to contend with your current situation, the initial steps when you receive a prophecy, and how to get the most out of it regarding your identity. This blog post looks at what your prophetic word is saying about your calling and purpose and how to extrapolate that out of your prophetic word.

When we returned from Mozambique six years ago, we looked at the fact that our 8-year-old daughter had prophetic words over her life about healing people in the natural and supernatural. We realized that we couldn’t just wait until she was 21 and expect her to start praying for people and seeing healings. We had a responsibility to place her in situations to steward her growth and development in this. Thus, our family joined our church’s Healing Rooms Team, where we would all get experience and training praying for people for healing. For the first five years we were involved in this, there were minimal children on the team i.e. mostly one other girl.

Were my kids happy about being involved? Not always, mainly because there weren’t many other kids, although my daughter loved catching up with the other girl and looked forward to the times being with her. Were we tempted many times to stop doing this as a family because it was hard? Yes, but we hung in there. Now there are at least 15 children/teenagers on the team, and our kids look forward to going. My daughter has seen God heal so many times that she now expects God to heal and that He wants to heal. God and healing are synonymous.

In relation to your prophetic words, let’s now look at how to find what they are saying about your calling and purpose.

Steps to identifying your calling and purpose:

  • Grab a copy of your prophetic words, some highlighters, a blank sheet of paper and pens.
  • Read through your prophetic word, this time highlighting all the words that talk about:
    • your future
    • your purpose
    • action or ‘doing’ words (as against ‘being’ words)
    • where you are likely to be in the future or what you are likely to be doing
  • As you did with your identity words, read through your prophetic word again and look for words or themes that are repeated, or emphasized.
  • Grab the blank piece of paper and a pen and then write down all the highlighted words.
  • If you have several prophetic words, do this for them all. Highlight:
    • any exact wording
    • common themes
    • stuff that leaps out at you
    • resonates with your soul
    • any words that confirm what God has already been chatting with you about
  • Do not forget to highlight anything that conflicts with what God has already shown you.
    • Look at why it appears to be in conflict with what you already know.
    • Is it a conflict or an enlarging of what you already know?
    • Is it something you need to ‘shelve’ for a period of time?
    • Does it carry the ‘heart’ of God, or is it against God’s character?
    • Is it a conflict or a different way of looking at something God is revealing to you?

Spend time with God seeking His heart on anything that appears to be conflicting.

  • Look for any specific words that talk about where, what, who with, etc. Circle them so they stand out. Use your sheet of paper to mark and highlight important aspects.
  • Take particular note of any character words. Our calling is not in isolation. It is very dependent on our character. Clues to this can be found in who God wants to be for us in this next stage/season of our life. Look for any words along this line. God is a relational God, so He wants to come with us on the journey we are embarking on. He wants to play an essential role in this journey, so look for clues as to who He wants to be for us. Another way of looking at it is ‘what is God wanting to provide for me on this journey?’

Personal prophecy is conditional. It is dependent on us co-operating with God and becoming who He wants us to become. Usually this requires a step up in our character or skills or identity. Does anything come to mind immediately regarding this? Take a moment to ask God to highlight anything to you where you need to go on a character journey.

Spend time dreaming with God.

  • Spend time just being with God, dreaming or imagining what the future may look like for you if these prophetic words come true.
  • What steps will you need to take to get from where you currently are to where you will be?
  • Write down practical things that you would need to grow in.
  • Continue spending time with God over the next few days dreaming and brainstorming with God about these steps.
  • Look at the first 2-3 steps you would need to take. Write them down. Ask God to impress on you the way forward. You need to take some responsibility to action these steps. You can’t expect God to pluck you out of your current circumstances and land you right in your fulfilled prophecy. You may find it helpful to grab another sheet of paper and draw the steps and label them.

In the next blog post, we will look at crafting a prophetic declaration and how to action your next steps.

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:  Put the names of everyone present on separate pieces of paper and place in a hat. Ask each person to pick a piece of paper out. The person’s name on the paper is who they will ask God to share with them which cake mix that person reminds God of and why. Ask everyone to share with the group.

2. Group Activation: Ask everyone to bring a small but significant / meaningful object from home. Place all the objects together. Ask each person to choose an object and prophesy over the person it belongs to.

3. Beginner Activation: Look for a key in your home that you don’t normally use that often. Spend time with God asking Him what is on His heart for that key and what it opens. Ask God to then enlarge your vision and see what He has to say about your next step and an opening that may occur.

4. Intermediate Activation: Find someone wearing a mask (during this time of COVID-19). Ask God to show you His heart for the person and how that relates to the mask they are wearing. Ask God if the colour / pattern / design are influential in what He reveals to you. Ask God if you are to release what God has shown you to the person. If so, find an appropriate way to let the person know God’s thoughts towards them, being aware of the language you use.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to show you a bully in your life – whether personal, family, neighbourhood, church, Government etc. Ask God to show you His heart and purpose for this person and your part to play in the ‘bully’s’ life or future. Declare out aloud God’s intentions for this person, finishing with a blessing as you call them higher.

What to do with Prophetic Words – part 3

What is the first thing you do when you receive a gift wrapped up beautifully? Apart from thanking the giver, you usually unwrap it. You want to see what is inside. Receiving a prophetic word is like receiving a gift. We need to accept it, unwrap it and then do something with it otherwise having a beautifully wrapped gift just sitting on the bench is a waste.

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.

What to do with a Prophetic Word – Part 2

Numerous times people have asked me if I want to listen to a prophetic word given to them by a famous prophet. It was usually from at least 5-10 years ago. These people then tell me it hasn’t come true yet, but they have this tremendous prophetic word over their life, and they are just waiting for it to occur, and they feel that now may be the time they see it fulfilled.

I usually ask them what they have done to enable it to become a reality. Most times, it is still on their phone, and it is something they have listened to longingly, but they have become frustrated as they don’t see the evidence in their life. They are still desperately hoping it will come true.

Just because you have a prophetic word, doesn’t mean that it will come true.

A prophetic word is conditional. Conditional on you!!

When we returned from Mozambique nine years ago, we realised that we needed to steward the prophetic words over our family’s lives. One of our children had prophetic words about healing people in the natural and the supernatural. We realised that we couldn’t expect our children to grow up and become adults and just start suddenly to pray for people and to expect them to be healed. We needed to put our children in a place where they could learn and practice and grow. So, we decided as a family to join the Healing Rooms team at our church.   Our children had eight years of faithfully turning up and praying for people and seeing people healed. They witnessed people being healed from cancer, deafness, poor eyesight, infertility, back pain, one leg shorter than the other, etc.

Part of stewarding your prophetic word is becoming the person required in identity and character and gifting so that your prophetic word ‘fits’.

Your prophetic word is a ‘working document’. It communicates that you are a ‘work in progress’. Prophetic words given to you are an encouragement of how you are seen in Heaven and a glimpse of your future. But they still depend on you becoming that person.

A prophetic word doesn’t tell you what the reality is for you right now. That is a ‘word of knowledge’ if the person doesn’t know you. If the person knows you and your situation or has googled you to find out information as occurs frequently, then it is just purely feeding your ego or encouraging you.

This blog post is the second in a series of blogs about “What do I do with my prophetic word?”. In this blog post, l address the first steps to take after receiving a prophetic word.

Habakkuk 2:1-3 says, “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time”.

1. “Look to God to see what He will say to you”.

Do the hard work by enjoying your relationship with God and spending time with God in the quiet place. Draw close to God. Prophetic words confirm an answer to me of what God is already showing me. Prophetic words are usually not just ‘out of the blue’ random words given to you. It is God showing you through yet another way or yet another person the answer to a question you have been asking or a solution you have been looking for. Your relationship with God must come first. I encourage you to seek God, not a prophetic word. God will come through and show you the answer or give you a prophetic word through someone but seek God, not a prophetic word. Your relationship with God will unlock God’s heart for you.

Please do not chase a prophetic word from a ‘prophet’. Please pursue God instead. Spend time with God, learning to hear, see and sense directly from Him.

2. Whenever you can, try and record your prophetic word.

If you have a digital device, use that. Otherwise, try to write down as much as you can as soon as possible after you have received it. Please write it down yourself and do the hard work. Do not automatically assume that the person who gave you the prophetic word will remember it all. I know from the times I have given prophetic words, I can remember the huge stuff, but I quickly forget what I have just said, especially if I am giving several prophetic words to different people one after the other. I also know from chatting with other prophetic people that they are the same. If you do not remember any of it and the person who prophesied over you doesn’t either and you didn’t record it, God is a good God. He will bring it to you another way and take comfort that your spirit will not forget it. Ask God to bring it back to you. Spend time soaking/ meditating on God. Ask Him to reveal it to you in your dreams.

You are responsible for recording it. The person prophesying over you also has a responsibility to make sure they are not speaking prophetic words over people with no accountability, so they will usually ask you if you can record it. Be wary of anyone who just speaks prophetic words over people and has no regard for accountability.

Listen to it over and over. The more we hear our prophecy and read it, the more it becomes part of us. Listen to the language and the manner they imparted it to you as that also forms part of the prophetic word. A prophetic word is what the Father’s heart is for you.

In my last blog post, I wrote about how I used a prophetic word over my daughter when she was critically ill in hospital as an 8-year-old. That prophetic word came to my mind because I had read and re-read that prophetic word. It had become part of me as I had intentionally read it and prayed over it every day for several months. I took that prophetic word with me in my handbag, and whenever I had a few minutes to spare, I would grab it out and read over it and pray it through. With your prophetic word, go through each sentence and pray it through. Thank God.

An example is if it said that “Jane, the Lord has given you a heart for healing. A heart for restoration and reconciliation.” I would then pray and declare, “Thank you, Father God, that You have given me a heart for healing, restoration and reconciliation. I decree and declare that I am a healer, that I bring healing from the Lord and will also bring restoration and reconciliation to people.”

3. “Write down the prophetic word”.

Transcribe your prophecy. You can then see it visually. I find it helpful to type it on my computer so I have a copy I can print off. I double-space it so I can work with it easily and make notations above and below words. Your prophetic word is a working document. When someone prophesies over you, that is just the beginning. You still have to do the work and get the most out of it to benefit from it. Read it and re-read it. Keep it with you, and whenever you have a few moments, get it out and read over it again. Let it soak into you and become part of you.

When our family received our first prophetic word nine years ago, we were in Mozambique. We had no idea what to do with it. So, I transcribed it and read it repeatedly. We prayed it through and turned it into a prayer. In effect, we memorised it. This helped us when we were confronted with our daughter’s illness, and the prophetic word came to the forefront of our mind. Thus, we were able to use it in the spiritual and emotional fight for her healing. Never underestimate the power and impact of your prophetic word.

4. “Make it plain on tablets.”

This is where you begin to work on it.

  • You need to test it. Does it ‘feel’ right and does it witness to your spirit?
  • All prophecy needs to be weighed against the nature of God. Does the prophecy bear witness to the nature of God & what God says in the Bible?
  • Do you go “yes” that is right or put it up on the shelf for a while or discard it? Many times, people have thought that a particular prophetic word was wrong and not for them. They shelved it and when they looked at it again several years later, they were shocked at how accurate it was. Just be careful not to discard it too quickly!!
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all, hold on to what is good.”
  • Remember the purpose of prophecy is to encourage, build-up and comfort us from God’s heart. 1 Corinthians 14:3 “But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort”.
  • A significant question to ask is, “Will responding to this prophecy bear good fruit in my life?”

5. “So that a herald may run with it.”

Is there any sense of timing in your prophetic word? Is it a ‘now’ word for today, or perhaps a word for several years? Read through your prophetic word again and look for any clues as to timing or what will be fulfilled, or who you will become identity wise before the prophetic word is fulfilled.

My next blog post will highlight various questions that are great to ask about your prophetic word as you begin to dissect your prophecy. In it, I will look at what your prophetic word says about your identity.

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:  Draw and design a mask, maybe even using material. Ask God what He would like each person in your family to have on their mask.

2. Group Activation: Join with several people and craft a joint prophetic word for a local or national television station. Speak it out aloud. Ask God if He wants you to send it to the station.

3. Beginner Activation: Draw and design a cape for you to place around your shoulders. It could be using material or draw on paper. Ask God how He would like you to illustrate it and which words He would put on it describing you.

4. Intermediate Activation: Go for a walk and choose a neighbour’s house. Prophesy over the house and everyone who lives there and will live there in the future. You can speak it out aloud as you walk. You do not necessarily have to speak to the people concerned, unless God highlights that He would like you to. You could even write it in a card/letter and put it in their letterbox.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight someone influential in the media. Prophesy over them. Ask God if you are to personally contact them or to declare it out aloud into the atmosphere.

What to do with Your Prophetic Word part 1

It was 8pm, September 2011. 9 Years ago. I was standing beside my daughter’s hospital bed. The Doctor’s addressed me saying, “Mrs Berry. You have a very sick little girl. We don’t know yet what is wrong with her but by the morning, we should have some answers back. So far, we have tested for HIV Aids, Hepatitis B, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Cancer, Leukaemia…..” My mind went blank and I didn’t hear anything else.

The Doctors left the room and I managed to settle my 8-year-old daughter for sleep. I sank down into the chair beside her bed. Thankfully, we were in an isolated room (as they thought my daughter may be infectious) so we didn’t have to contend with anyone else.

As I snuggled into that hard plastic chair, my mind was racing. It had taken us over ten years to be able to fall pregnant. Now, I was looking at losing her. Would she die in two years, one year, four months? This was all flashing through my mind. Suddenly, my mind was arrested.

We had just returned from Mozambique, Africa where we had attended the Iris Harvest School for three months under Heidi Baker. Whilst we were there, we had received a prophetic word from a man called David Wagner. We were new to prophecy and had no idea about it apart from the fact that this guy was meant to be very accurate. We didn’t even know what to do with our prophetic word so we had recorded it, transcribed it and prayed it through. In fact, we had prayed it through so much that we knew it off by heart.

It was now that a sentence or two from that memorised prophetic word came back to me about my daughter. “I saw the Lord putting a doctor’s coat on you in the days ahead and I just saw you as one who walks who is not only going to be a physician, but one who carries the great physician and I saw you as one who ministers to people with miracles and medicine and medical missions and all of those things.”

I suddenly realised, for my 8-year-old daughter to become a doctor and fulfil this prophetic word (& for me, it is not about whether she becomes a doctor as she can have the freedom to choose whatever) but it meant that she would have to be at least 24 years old to be finished university to become a doctor. That meant that she was not going to die from whatever disease she currently was facing.

At that moment, I laughed in the face of adversity like the Proverbs 31 woman (Proverbs 31:25). I grabbed that prophetic word and I began to contend and war with the situation we were currently facing and I used it to give us hope. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

I knew the outcome. I knew that this huge ‘mountain’ in front of us was not the end. With that prophetic word, I could ‘see’ over the top of that ‘mountain’ and ‘see’ that there was a future. This mountain we were facing might be huge, but it wasn’t going to be the end. Sure, we had to get through it to get to the other side, but it wasn’t the end. The prophetic word gave us hope and a future.

Friends, please, please, please. If you don’t have a prophetic word for you, your children etc, get one. Secondly, use your prophetic word wisely and contend with the current situation you are facing. Make your prophetic word into a declaration and speak it out against your current situation. Pray your prophetic word into being.

Make sure you subscribe so that you get next week’s blog post as I am going to start to look at the practical aspects of “What to do with your prophetic word”. This is part of a 4-week series.

To prepare, grab your prophetic words out and read over them. If you don’t have one for yourself or each of your children, ask someone you know who is prophetic and whom you trust to give you a prophetic word for yourself and for each of your children.

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:  Ask the kids to go outside and gather various objects from nature that have different textures and surfaces eg bark, leaves, snail, etc. Spend time touching the various textures and asking God what He wants to reveal to everyone about Himself through the different textures. Then ask God what He would like to communicate to the other family/group members through the objects of nature.

2. Group Activation: Select a local business that most group members would be aware of. Spend time asking God for His heart for that business. Decree and declare out aloud God’s heart over that business.

3. Beginner Activation: Turn on a tap or jump under the shower and ask God to reveal something of Himself to you through the sound and feel of the running water. Spend some time focussing on God and His goodness and intentions towards you. Revel in God’s goodness through the running water.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you someone who desperately needs God’s encouragement today. Contact this person and share what you sense/see/hear that which is on God’s heart for that person.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight a news headline to you today. Pray into that headline and prophesy God’s outcome over the situation.

Dream Interpretation part 3

Over the last two weeks, I have blogged about the importance of dreams, preparing to dream and how to record your dream. The first week I covered dreams in the Bible and some amazing dreams that people have had and how these dreams have helped influence society with their inventions, scientific discoveries, movies, books etc.

Last week I blogged about how to prepare for a dream and then how to document the dream. It is one thing to have a dream, but if you can’t remember it and don’t take the time to document it and uncover what the dream means, then you lose the full impact of the dream.

Today I want to unpack how you interpret your dreams and how God uses metaphors so that you can have a fuller understanding of that which God is trying to reveal to you.

Remember Proverbs 25:2 “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”

You may well find that most of your dreams are not literal. They are symbolic. God usually uses metaphors. A metaphor is a figure of speech where a word or a description is applied to an object eg God as a Father, God as a rock, God as a strong tower. They are all metaphors to describe God. When you understand the metaphor and look at what it is meaning or ‘similar’ to, it gives a greater depth and understanding to God, to the situation and to yourself.

The word ‘interpret’ in the Hebrew has two words which explain its meaning – pathar and pashar. Pathar relating to a mouth/opening and a cross (representing a symbol). Pashar relates to the understanding of a dream. Thus, when we interpret a dream, we are opening up the symbols of a dream and the understanding of a dream.

It is one thing to have a dream but if we don’t take the time to consider its meaning and interpret it, we are missing out on vital information from God.

There have been numerous times when my dreams have helped me understand what has happened in my life or have helped in various situations over the following days or months. Several times it has really helped me make important decisions as the wisdom gleaned from the dream was applicable to that which I was facing at the time.

As you record your dream, please take the time to also record how you felt when you first woke up. Even those times when the dream left you feeling confused or ‘yuck’, they can still be useful.

Are all dreams from God – no. The devil can also impact your dreams. Dreams reveal things about ourselves, God’s plans, the enemy’s plans for our lives, and they can also be a processing of past events or unresolved issues that we may well have ‘brushed’ over and felt that the event no longer impacts us. God, in His wisdom, knows far greater, and sometimes that may be the only way we will start to process the past hurt or situation.

Steps to Interpret your dream:

  1. Pray. As your read through what you have written down, pray about the various aspects. Pray for more revelation. Pray about how to apply what you learn to your life. Work with the Holy Spirit in the interpretation and application to your life. Genesis 40:8b says, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”
  2. Summarize the dream as if you were telling a story in 30 seconds maximum. Thus, tell just the highlights and the repetitive details. Write this down as it helps you determine the important parts.
  3. Give your dream a Title. This helps in the future when you are wanting to remember and apply the dream but it also sums up the dream in a few words and again, it helps you to determine the most important aspect of the dream.
  4. Are you an active participant in the dream or are you looking on as an outsider, like an observer? Sometimes the observer role indicates that it is a call to intercede.
  5. What is the main focus or the primary element?
  6. Look at the context / setting. Is it about you, your family, your career, relationships, ministry? What is the general theme or main focus?
  7. Who is in the dream? Most times, the people in your dream do not represent those people in your actual life. Most times, those people are symbolic. Look at the role or what that person means to you in your life – are they a close friend, a mentor, a daughter-like figure, a dad? Look at that relationship from a biblical or metaphorical perspective eg dad usually represents Heavenly Father. One night I had a dream about my High School Principle who was called Mr Cross. The dream was not about Mr Cross. Mr Cross in the dream represented Jesus who died on the cross. Is the person’s name a play on words? Does it represent a generation or age group or a type of person?
  8. Develop your own unique dream vocabulary. God speaks to us each as individuals. He doesn’t treat us all the same. Thus, your dream vocabulary will not be the same as mine. An example is that a black dog to you might represent your pet dog growing up who was black. As soon as I think of black dog I think of depression. Two vastly different meanings. That doesn’t mean that I can’t use helpful books (And one book I highly recommend is ‘The Divinity Code to Understanding your dreams and visions’ by Adam F. Thompson and Adrian Beale. (A huge plus is that these men are from Australia so have both American and Australian language in it.) I find that God often uses puns with me. Eg to let = toilet; Russian man – rushing around,
  9. Recognise that there is usually multiple interpretations and levels that can be gleaned. Remember, God is in the details. On the other hand, please don’t get stuck in the nitty gritty details and go off on a rabbit trail.
  10. List out the main 5-7 major points / symbols from the dream. Look at those that carry the most ‘weight’. Then start to unpack them. With metaphors, look at the hidden meaning or truth that each metaphor could represent.
  11. Vehicles in a dream usually represent ministry or influence. Thus, if on a bicycle, it is referring to a solo role or individual calling that doesn’t go far very quickly ie locally based; a car – small ministry. If you are driving, it may be your ministry. Where you sit is important eg back seat – taking a back seat etc; a bus – a larger ministry etc Likewise, buildings, houses and rooms within a house have meanings eg bedroom usually signifies intimacy; kitchen – spiritual preparation
  12. Ask Holy Spirit to confirm within you the meaning or seek advice.
  13. Apply the outcome, if possible.

Dream interpretation is really an invitation to draw closer to God. Using discernment is so important.

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:  Prepare some different flavours for the family to taste eg sweet, sour, spicy, bland, bitter. Even add in some various textures. Place on the table. Ask each person to taste the different food, all tasting the same dish/food at the same time. Spend some time each sharing what aspect of God, themself or some else it reminds them of and why.

2. Group Activation: Ask group members to pair up. Ask them to hear/see/sense from God an image of a ‘sign’ from God for their partner. Prophesy over each other what God said.

3. Beginner Activation: Pick up an item of stationary. Ask God to reveal to you something about Himself for you through that item.

4. Intermediate Activation: Deliberately go past a street sign today. Spend a few moments taking note of the street sign and asking God to speak to you about the application of the street sign and something in your life or someone else’s life. Turn it into a prophecy and declare it out aloud.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight a high profile celebrity to you and begin to spend time each day seeking God’s heart for this person. Prophesy out aloud into the atmosphere what God shares with you, especially about this person’s character and heart. Start interceding for this person.

Dream Interpretation Part 2

Last week, I blogged about the importance of dreams. I covered dreams in the Bible and some amazing dreams that people have had and how these dreams have helped influence society with their inventions, scientific discoveries, movies, books etc.

This week I am covering how to prepare for a dream and then how to document the dream. It is one thing to have a dream, but if you can’t remember it and don’t take the time to document it and uncover what the dream means, then you lose the full impact of the dream.

If you make an effort to prepare and expect to have a dream, it shows God that you are serious and that you expect and want to hear from Him. Since God is a good God, I am sure He will not let you down. In 1 Samuel 3: 1-10, we read about the boy Samuel hearing from the Lord. Eli ends up in verse 9 advising Samuel to respond with “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” Imagine if our response to God every night as we lay in bed was: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening and wanting to hear from you.”

Dreams are important as they help us understand more about God, His character and what He wants to say to us and why. Basically, it helps us grow in our relationship with God. When we catch this principle, we can look forward to dreaming at night, hearing from God and going deeper with Him. I liken it to giving me more wisdom in my life as it is a time when God speaks to me bypassing my rational mind. God often gives me ideas and solutions that help in situations and issues within the next day or so. Who doesn’t want that!!

Preparing for a Dream:

  1. Limit alcohol, drugs/chemicals and prescription drugs (eg sleeping tablets). The more alert your brain is, the clearer you can hear and see from God.
  2. Be careful what you watch and read before bed. If you fill your mind with scary movies or stories before sleep, then expect that that may influence what your thoughts consist of whilst you are asleep. Pray and cleanse your imagination.
  3. Sleeping atmosphere – quiet, relaxing, peaceful environment contributes towards calmer sleep, thoughts, and hearing from God whilst you are asleep.
  4. Have a device by your bed to document your dream. I use a journal and pen. Other people use a recording device (but I don’t want to wake hubby).
  5. Look at your attitude towards dreams. Be intentional and expectant. Show God that you want to hear from Him during your sleep. Confess any inner vow you have made re not wanting any dreams. This may not be applicable to you, but certain children I know have told God that they don’t want any dreams, as they had a few dreams that unsettled them. God will respect that, therefore they can’t expect at some later stage to have dreams if they haven’t let God know. In Luke 11:9, Jesus says: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” If we chase after God and all He has for us, God will reveal Himself to us. You will start to find that you have more dreams and you are more likely to remember them. It is not unusual to already be having dreams, but you are just unaware that you are dreaming. Once you intentionally try to remember and record them, you may well be surprised at how many dreams you actually have.

Recording Dreams:

  1. Record your dream as soon as possible after waking. I find that if I don’t write it down immediately, I forget the details. Often, I have woken up overnight, and as I lie in bed, I repeat the dream to myself so that, hopefully, I will remember it in the morning to write it down. Trust me, that is not very effective. I hardly ever remember them. I need to get out of bed, grab my dream journal and pen and go to the dining room and write it down immediately.
  2. You may find a recording device eg phone, recorder etc where you can quietly talk into it is helpful as you can stay snuggled up in bed. I can’t do that as it would wake my husband.
  3. You could try using a penlight etc and have that and your book/paper handy beside your bed.
  4. You may prefer to draw a picture that represents the elements of the dream.
  5. I start a new page for every dream. I write it down on the right-hand side and on the facing page I leave room for the interpretation. I always put the date at the top. I also give my dream a title. This helps me to remember it better.
  6. Record the dream sequence. Answer the questions who, what, when, where and why. In other words, list:
    • the main focus,
    • the plot,
    • any people and their names,
    • whether you are in the dream or an observer,
    • where it took place and the setting,
    • the time period,
    • key actions,
    • symbols/colours/numbers/animals/objects/images,
    • any dialogue.
    • Plus write down the overall emotion you felt during the dream and immediately on waking.

Dreams are an invitation from God to draw closer to Him and to come to know Him at a greater level. Dreams open up the mysteries of God. The word for ‘dream’ in ancient Hebrew is chalowm. Chalowm is represented by four different pictures. Water representing the mystery or the Holy Spirit. A tent peg representing binding/holding/joining something together. A staff representing authority or bringing something to you. A wall is also represented meaning that something is hidden or separated from you. Thus, a fuller understanding of the word ‘dream’ is that of the mystery that is hidden from you is being brought to you and revealed.

My next blog post will start to unpack how you interpret your dreams and how God uses metaphors so that you can have a fuller understanding of that which God is trying to reveal to you.

Remember Proverbs 25:2 “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”

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:  Over a family meal, share a story from the Bible about someone dreaming and the relevance of it. Then share a dream you have had. Ask the rest of the family if they have ever had any dreams. If so, ask them if they can remember any. If not, ask them if they would like God to speak to them that way. Buy a journal for those who would like one for them to record their dreams.

2. Group Activation: In preparation, ask people to bring to the group a dream they have had and any interpretation they have made. Ask various people to share their dream and interpretation. Spend some time in pairs praying over each other for their dream life – that they would dream more and be able to understand their dreams.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to reveal more wisdom to you during your dreams. Get a book and pen ready to record your dreams. Ask God to show you if there has been any time in the past when you have not wanted to dream and chat about this with God. Look at anything else you can do so that you can increase your dream life and hear from God during your sleep.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you a business in your town that is suffering from the impact of COVID-19. Ask God to reveal to you what you could prophesy and pray over that business and the owner.

5. Advanced Activation: Find out the name of the person who owns a major media outlet (eg newspaper, television station, movie production studio) in your country. Seek God as to what He would have you prophesy and pray over this person and the media outlet.

Dream Interpretation Part 1

God is so amazing. He loves communicating with us. He is extremely creative. In fact, He is the author of creativity and creatively uses all sorts of ways and means to get our attention.

One of the methods that God uses to communicate with us is through our dreams.

Unfortunately for most people, we short-change ourselves by not making use of this communication with God. We may have ‘shut’ our dream life down by an inner vow after a ‘scary dream’ or may not be aware that God even wants to speak to us during the third of our life that we are asleep.

When I am talking about dreams, I am referring to the events or series of thoughts and images seen in our mind whilst asleep.

I dream prolifically and find that they are extremely helpful to me in my daily life. Just the other day, I had a dream and on waking was unsure what it meant. Lately I haven’t been paying enough attention to them as I haven’t prioritised writing them down in my dream journal, but I knew that I needed to write this dream down. I still had no idea what the dream meant and didn’t make the time to do this. I just knew that it was a warning that Gary & I were ‘running ahead of ourselves’ in a certain area and taking possession of something before the right time. In other words, we were too eager in our timing to see something huge accomplished and pushed ahead when we should have waited. Several hours later, I suddenly realised that that my dream was relevant to that very day. I had just received news that the shipment of my paperback books had not left the warehouse and wouldn’t be delivered for several days. We had been expecting the delivery that day and all the plans I had made for the day plus the weekend and next week would need to be adjusted. Initially I was extremely disappointed and frustrated. Realising that God had tried to show me this suddenly shed a new light on the situation.

God has a purpose with our dreaming. He is inviting us to draw closer to Him. In Proverbs 25:2, the Bible says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” We are royalty as a child of God. As such, we are invited to live as royalty and have an invitation to search out what God is trying to communicate to us.

Dreams show us more of God. Dreams reveal more about God, more about His nature, His ways, and His workings. Dreams produce a hunger for more of God.

Other purposes of dreams include:

  • Wisdom and insight
  • Encouragement
  • Evangelism – many Muslims have dreams of a man in white speaking to them and become Christians due to their dream.
  • Show us outcomes and what to do
  • Dreams bypass our reasoning

In the Bible, we see a number of people had night time dreams where God communicated to them.

  • Abimelek in Genesis 20:3 was warned by God that he was about to commit a sin by having sex with Sarah. Abraham had not been honest with Abimelech and thankfully God stopped Abimelek in time.
  • Jacob was given a dream of a ladder with ministering angels in Genesis 28:11-22 and Genesis 31:10-13 which revealed God’s will to him.
  • Laban’s warning in Genesis 31:24
  • Pharaoh in Genesis 41 – for preparation for the future of his country.
  • King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2
  • Solomon in 1Kings 3:5 encouraged to ask for anything he wanted in his dream.
  • Daniel in Daniel 7
  • Gideon, in Judges 7:13-15 was mightily encouraged by God and His faith built up by overhearing two Midianites talking about a dream where Gideon overpowering them.
  • Joseph, in Genesis 37:5-10 had the future revealed to Him.
  • The imprisoned cupbearer and baker in Genesis 40:5-23.
  • Joseph, Mary’s husband & Jesus’ stepfather was given multiple instructions by God for the care and safety of Jesus in Matthew 1:20-23, 2:13, 19-20, 22.
  • The Wise men seeking Jesus dreamt of being told not to visit Herod the Great on their return trip home in Matthew 2:12
  • Job in Job 33:14-18 shares about dreaming as a warning, preparation and preservation
  • Pilate’s wife in Matthew 27:19 had a warning dream about the death of Jesus and the implications for her husband.

Throughout history, we can also see the amazing effects of when people have had dreams and put the outcome of those dreams into action. Some fantastic examples include:

  • Elias Howe invented the sewing machine after searching for answers to the issue. He then dreamt about cannibals surrounding him and preparing to cook him as they waved their spears up and down. His eyes focused on the holes near the end of the spears and the upward and downward movement of the spears. He put that picture into reality with the sewing machine needle and found that was the answer to the invention.
  • Paul McCartney from The Beatles had a dream in which he immediately rolled out of bed and played the music and lyrics he had heard in his dream on the piano by his bed. He had just composed the song ‘Yesterday’.
  •  Jack Nicklaus dreamt of an adjustment to his golf swing which he then implemented the following day and improved his score dramatically.
  • Abraham Lincoln dreamt that he would be killed three days before his assassination.
  • Frankenstein, Kubla Khan, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Tintin in Tibet, The Terminator, and countless other books and movies have been inspired by dreams
  • Science has been impacted greatly through scientists and philosphers dream life – Descartes and his philosophy, Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity, Kekule and his discovery of the chemical benzene, James Watson & Francis Crick discovering the structure of DNA, Bohr’s structure of the atom, Mendeleev envisisioned the complete arrangement of the periodic table in a dream

I wonder what mysteries, inventions, amazing discoveries and opportunities we are missing out on by not paying attention to our dreams?

Over the next few weeks, I will start to unpack dreams and look at basic dream interpretation. Next week I will also offer some suggestions to help your dream life to be more active.

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 around your neighbourhood playground and pray a blessing over the park, equipment and families who will return there after the COVID-19 lockdown.

2. Group Activation: Ask every group member to bring a small object to the meeting (whether online during this COVID-19 time or in-person). Take it in turn to prophesy over each person in regard to their object and what God is showing you as a springboard to their life.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to show you how to express His love to your neighbour.

4. Intermediate Activation: Open your fridge and ask God to highlight an item. Use that item as a basis to write a prophetic word for a friend.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God hearing and sensing His heart for a business owner in your local area who is needing to make a decision about the future of their business.