Category Archives: Teaching

When I can’t hear from God for myself.

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Have you ever tried to hear from God and couldn’t?

Have you ever wished that God would write on your bedroom wall what you should do next (like in Daniel 5 for King Belshazzar)? I remember when I had just finished my nursing training in Tasmania and was trying to figure out what I should do next. I had an incredible opportunity with nursing, but I sensed God wanted me to shift interstate to pursue ministry training. I tossed and turned during the night, pondering God’s will for me. Even after 36 years, I can remember that overwhelming desire to have God write it on the wall or make it plain. I remember I even asked Him to write it on my bedroom wall so I would know what to do next.

I was young and had no real idea how to seek Godly wisdom. I had no way of recognising how God was speaking to me. I had minimal knowledge of the various ways God speaks to us.

This week’s podcast on our ‘Hearing God’ podcast covers that very issue – what to do when I can’t seem to hear from God for myself. (Next week’s podcast addresses what to do when our mind goes blank when we are trying to hear from God for others!)

The link for this week’s ‘Hearing God’ podcast is: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2196128/13276030 (You can listen to it on any podcast listening app.)

First Principle: Ask a Different Question

I will never forget the first time I decided to ask God a different question. I was driving home from an Anzac Day Service where I had watched my son march with his Air Force Cadet Squadron. Tears had flowed down my face. (When I am unexpectedly emotional, I have learnt to ask God what that is about.) I was processing this with God and asking why I had responded that way. “God – what was underneath that?” Nothing. I heard, felt, and saw nothing from God. I remember thinking, “well Jane, why don’t you ask God a different question then?” I changed the question to “God, was my response appropriate?” Bam!! The answer flowed.

Other suggestions when you are struggling to hear God for yourself:

  • Change things up – walk on the beach, different worship music, fast,
  • Read a different version of the Bible.
  • Devour God’s Word the Bible Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
  • Turn your heart and affections to God. Praise shifts the atmosphere. Psalm 100:4 “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.”

Some questions to ask yourself when you are feeling stuck and can’t seem to hear God for yourself:

  • Am I enjoying my relationship with God?
  • Am I treating God like Santa Claus? Am I wanting to hear a specific answer, thus not hearing God because I’m not getting what I want?

Second Principle: Check obedience.

If there is an area of my life in which God has asked something of me and I haven’t obeyed, I find it is much harder to hear God about another issue.

Ten years ago, I asked God to show me my future in nursing. I had a very specific dream that night, and the interpretation clearly outlined the step I needed to take. Fast forward five years, and I hadn’t obeyed. The outcome of the dream came true.

The Bible is full of amazing and often frustrating stories. Moses in Exodus 3 & 4 is one such example. Moses was going about his business, saw an unusual sight so went over to check it out (there was a bush on fire, but it didn’t burn up). God caught his attention with this unusual sight and showed up with a miraculous sign, then an audible voice telling him to go and address Pharoah. Moses refused five times with excuses that fed into his low self-worth. If you refuse, God can easily use someone else or limit your effectiveness.

Check:

  • If there is somewhere you haven’t yet obeyed God.
  • For sin, fear, ignorance.
  • Any unbelief in hearing God or needing more assurance or a sign.
  • For any preconceived idea of what God would sound like or say.
  • To see if you are realising your identity as a son/daughter of God or not realising the magnitude and greatness of God.

If you are struggling on an ongoing basis, it would be worth considering prayer ministry / inner healing. After my first time of having a SOZO, I left the building, and all my senses were electrified. Birds were singing. The sun was shining with a gentle breeze ruffling the leaves. God seemed extra close. I felt I could ask God anything and hear Him clearly. The prayer ministry session had ‘cleared’ my connection with God of any junk and it felt like an express highway of communication between God and me.

Prayer Ministry is valuable in clearing blockages and times when we may sense a wall between us and God or even when we may feel ‘frozen’ in relation to God and unable to hear Him.

Questions to ponder to begin the process may include:

  • God, is there a wall between you and me?
  • What does that wall look like?
  • Is there something you want to give me to help demolish that wall?
  • Is there an action I need to take?
  • If my emotions are frozen, when did that first occur?

Third Principle – God may appear silent, or the answer may look different.

My husband Gary recently gave a prophetic word to a young lady about three doors open before her. This young adult was gobsmacked as she had three research opportunities but wanted God to show her which option was from God. God was showing her that He would be pleased with whichever she chose, as He was giving her the choice, and all three pleased Him.

The book of Jeremiah in the Bible has much wisdom and many promises.

Jeremiah 29:12-13 “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

The promise from Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable (or hidden) things you do not know.”

If you are unsure, here are some things to consider:

  • Am I devouring God’s Word? Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
  • Have I tried fasting?
  • What has God already given or shown me?
  • What has He promised me?
  • Speak life over my situation. 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.”

Alternatively, have you ever asked God:

  • What are you NOT saying?
  • God, what is your perspective of where I am right now?

I would love to hear the strategies you employ when you are having trouble hearing God for yourself. Feel free to comment below.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every blog post, I list five 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 Lego or building apparatus and enjoy creating what God is saying about you.

2. Group Activation: Get into pairs. Ask God to reveal to you which area of your life He wants to speak into. Then ask God which area of your partner’s life He wants to speak into. Ask God to show, tell, or give you something for that area of your partner’s life. Then share it with them. When your partner shares with you, see if it matches up with the area you sensed God wanted to highlight for you.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God, asking Him to reveal to you something in the Bible that speaks to you today.

4. Intermediate Activation: Spend time with God, asking Him to highlight His desire for your next season, any preparation required and anything you may need to let go of.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God hearing His heart for your nation and a current issue that is devisive. Ask God what He would love your response to be.

Keys for Physical Healing

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Numerous times throughout the Gospels, we read Jesus spoke a few words to someone, and they were healed. We don’t read of Jesus begging Father God to heal people. Instead, Jesus stated the desired outcome. He spoke the answer to the issue. Various examples include:

  • Mark 7:34 Jesus stated, “Be opened” to the dead and mute man’s ears and tongue and they were opened and healed.
  • Mark 3:5 “Stretch out your hand” to the man with the shrivelled hand, and it was healed.
  • Mark 5:21-43 “Little girl, I say to you, get up”, to the dead girl, who then got up and began walking around.

There are many more examples you will discover as you read the Gospels.

Our family has been fortunate to be involved in a church that believes that healing is for today. We have been involved in our church’s Healing Rooms for over eleven years and have seen many people healed and set free. We have also seen a number of people not healed.

It doesn’t seem fair that some people don’t seem to experience healing. I have no idea why. However, I have observed that some things aid and accelerate healing. We have incorporated these ‘keys’ into how we pray for people for healing, enabling us to see an acceleration in physical healing. Please note – there are no formulas in healing with God. (I wrote this blog post on that very issue.) God is sovereign and often heals people instantaneously, but it can also be a slow process, or we may not see healing for a particular person. Why is that? I don’t know.

Keys to physical healing:

1. We listen first to the Holy Spirit and ask Him how to pray. If we hear from Heaven what we should pray and how we should pray, there is a far greater result in a person experiencing healing. (In saying that, one time when I was asked to pray for someone with cancer, I asked God what I should pray for, and I sensed this person was going to die, and it was about comfort, not healing here on earth. Usually, when I pray for healing from cancer, it is about the person being healed here on earth.)

2. We usually ask the person if something occurred at the same time the injury or sickness began. Often there can be a correlation between an adverse life event and the illness/injury but not always. We are body, mind, and spirit; these three parts are interrelated.

3. We may sense there may be someone that the person may need to forgive (someone else, themselves, or God), but healing is not dependent on forgiveness. We only ask that if the Holy Spirit brings it to mind.

4. We ask if there is any pain or lack of movement. If there is pain, we ask the person to rate the pain level out of ten, with ten being the worst pain possible and zero being no pain. After we have prayed, we ask the person to test (e.g. see if there is an improvement in the movement) or if the pain has decreased and what it is now out of ten. If there is no change or slight improvement, we keep praying, expecting God to continue healing.

5. We don’t beg God. We simply state the desired outcome e.g. if a broken bone, we would say, “Bone be healed in Jesus’ name”. “Pain go. Inflammation be gone” etc. We speak to the issue.

6. In praying for someone, we often feel led to lift off shock and trauma, especially if the illness has been a shock to the person or they have been involved in an accident. We then pray for an infilling of peace, joy, clarity, etc.

7. We may sense to break words spoken over a person or labels put on them. If it is an illness, the illness is not their identity. It does not define them. E.g. “I currently have diabetes” is different than saying “I am a diabetic”; the latter can make it more difficult to be healed.

Next time you are praying for someone for healing, I encourage you to try these keys. I would also love to hear if you have discovered any other keys when praying for physical healing.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every blog post, I list five 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: Distribute paper and crayons/pencils. Ask the children to draw what body conditions God wants to heal today. Then find people needing those conditions healed and pray for them.

2. Group Activation: Ask group members if they need physical healing. Before praying, spend time asking God how He would love you to pray for them.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to highlight someone with a physical illness or injury today and ask God how He would love you to pray for them.

4. Intermediate Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to highlight a certain illness or physical injury. Ask God to reveal to you any keys in relation to the healing of that condition.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to highlight a national sports star. Ask God what He would love you to pray for that person and then declare it.

What do you want Jesus to do for you?

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This blog post continues along the theme of praying for people for healing. It is taken from Day 28 “Ministering like Jesus: How to Grow in Healing, Deliverance and Miracles” (Available here)

Mark 10:46-52 – Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

In this passage, I first notice that it can get messy before a miracle. The noise, the shouting, the crowd, the rebuking of the shouter, the shouting getting louder. It would have sounded chaotic. I would have felt like shouting, “STOP!”

Bartimaeus needed Jesus to hear him as Bartimaeus could not see Jesus, so he used what he had (his voice) to get Jesus’ attention. Jesus heard Bartimaeus above the noise, just like He always hears us.

He hears the cry of our hearts.

Even though Bartimaeus was told to be quiet, he became louder and more insistent. Bartimaeus knew who Jesus was and what Jesus could do. Bartimaeus had complete faith in Jesus’ ability to heal him. He was desperate for healing and was not going to miss out. Bartimaeus persevered.

Before Bartimaeus received his healing, he gave up his only possession – his cloak. His cloak symbolized his status as a beggar, his identity. He was willing to give up everything he had to get what he needed. He was willing to give up his only source of income to receive healing. He was willing to change his identity from a beggar to that of being healed and whole.

This passage shows no record of Jesus touching Bartimaeus to heal him. There is also no record of casting out a demon before healing, as is common in many of Jesus’ miracles in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus did not treat Bartimaeus the same way He healed the blind man at Bethsaida – by putting His spit in the blind man’s eyes. Just because the spit worked before when healing the blind man, Jesus treats each person individually. There is no set formula for healing with Jesus. Each person is unique. Each healing is unique.

Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”. When praying for people, a pivotal question to ask them is, “What do you want Jesus to do for you today?” The answer becomes apparent once they can articulate what they want Jesus to do for them.

A lady brought her elderly father to the Healing Rooms for prayer for healing one morning. We looked at the list of all the physical conditions they had listed that the man needed healing. It seemed overwhelming.

Before I even asked the Holy Spirit where we needed to start, I asked this man what he wanted Jesus to do for him this morning.

The man’s response shocked me.

The man replied, “I want to accept Jesus into my heart.”

Right then and there, we had the privilege of praying with this man, and his daughter, for him to enter the Kingdom of God.

I am so grateful for the question, “What do you want Jesus to do for you at the moment?” We could have missed this significant opportunity of this man accepting Jesus into his life. We then prayed for healing for all the physical issues, with him seeing amazing results. A couple of conditions were not healed, but the man’s focus had now shifted. The joy he carried was far greater than his physical condition. He had received far more than what he had expected.

To answer Jesus’ question, Bartimaeus replied: “I want to see.” Immediately Bartimaeus received his sight. Healing can occur immediately. Bartimaeus’ next response is to follow Jesus.

Immediately healed.

Immediately followed Jesus.

Reflection:

  • How do I respond in chaotic situations?
  • What am I prepared to give up to get what I need and follow Jesus?
  • How am I pressing into God for my healing?
  • Do I hear and see the ones who need a touch from Jesus, or am I distracted in the chaos?
  • Do I give people an opportunity to follow Jesus immediately after they have received their healing?
  • What do I want Jesus to do for me today?

Prayer:

Thank you, Jesus, that You are not put off by the mess and chaos surrounding us. Thank you, Jesus, for treating us all as individuals and ministering to our uniqueness. Thank you, Jesus, that You provide the answer for all my needs. Thank you, Jesus, that You hear the cries of my heart. Help me to see what You are doing and not get distracted. Help me treat each person I meet as an individual and worthy of Your love. Jesus, I declare today that I will give people an opportunity to receive from You, helping them encounter You for themselves. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every blog post, I list five 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: Give everyone paper and pencils/crayons and ask each person to draw two pictures – who Jesus wants to be for them today, and another picture – what they need from Jesus today. Ask them to explain what they have drawn. Finish with praying for each person.

2. Group Activation: Spend time praying for each group member (depending on the size of your group, you may need to break into smaller groups) asking each person, “What would you like Jesus to do for you today?”

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God sharing with Him what you would love Him to be or do for you today and listen for His response.

4. Intermediate Activation: During a phone call this week, ask the person “If Jesus could do anything for you at the moment, what would you like Him to do for you?” Then ask them if you could pray for them.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him who He would love to be for your country. Turn the answer into a prophetic statement to declare aloud.

Healing Touch part 2

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A touch communicates so much more than just your hand touching someone’s shoulder.

Something is transferred in the gesture.

I have often asked someone I am praying for if I can place my hand on their shoulder while praying for them. Sometimes, I don’t tend to ‘feel’ anything in my hand. Often, I may sense something is occurring for the person. Occasionally, my hand will feel warm and tingly. No matter what my hand feels, the other person often feels something in the exchange – usually heat, a tingling sensation, or a profound sense of peace. I know the Holy Spirit has been ministering physically to that person.

What if nothing is ‘felt’?

If there has been no ‘warmth’ or ‘tingling’ sensation in the touch, it does NOT mean that God hasn’t been ministering to the person physically. There does not need to be a warmth or tingling feeling.

Always ask before touching someone.

When praying for someone’s physical healing, I always ask first if I can place my hand on that body part, if appropriate, i.e. shoulder, back, usually those places not on the front of a person’s body or the ‘private’ parts. If a person asks for healing for their stomach, I will ask them if they can place their hand on their stomach/gut region and if I can then place my hand on top of their hand. I do not touch people’s breast region or genital area.

Please, please, please, always ask before you place your hand on someone. Imagine if your eyes were closed, and you suddenly felt someone touch you. It can be quite confronting. The unannounced touch can make your mind fixate and be frightened about where you might be touched next. You can feel violated.

Do you need to touch someone when praying for their physical healing?

No. God can heal people entirely with no physical intervention from us. God does not need us to touch people, although something supernaturally transmits in touch.

In Acts 19:11-12, we read: “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.” God used a cloth to transmit His power. God can heal people, however, and wherever He so desires. It is a privilege that God uses us sometimes in that process.

I love reading the Gospels and seeing what Jesus did. He touched people a lot. Despite Jesus being jostled by the crowd, he immediately recognized when the woman with the blood issue ‘touched’ Him; He realized that power had left his body. (Mark 5:22-34). Touch was important to Jesus.

Something miraculous occurs when we touch someone. Something so much more than just a touch.

In Mark 8:22-26, we read: “some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

(In my 30-Day Devotional book, “Ministering like Jesus: How to Grow in Healing, Deliverance and Miracles”, I expand on this passage and the attitude of the Bethsaida people begging Jesus. For this blog post on touch, I will not include that here.)

In healing the blind man in this Bible passage, Jesus spat on the man’s eyes. This can seem unhygienic – putting your body fluid on someone’s eyes. Yet, this appears to be a loving act here. Spit contains bacterial enzymes that can cleanse and kill an infection. Maybe Jesus applied the antibacterial moisture to help loosen the eyelids from sticking together.

One of my first experiences praying for people for healing was at a women’s conference. The speaker encouraged us to ask God who we should pray for so that they could experience healing, and then ask the person. I felt I needed to pray for a lady with a thyroid condition whose eyes were bulging. I strongly sensed that I was to spit on my fingers and place my fingers over her eyelids.

Yuck! I felt this was revolting.

But what began as a strong sense quickly became a certainty within me.

I went to this lady and briefly shared what I had felt to pray for her. I asked her, somewhat hesitantly, if it would be okay with her if I spit on my fingers and placed them over her eyelids as I sensed that was what God was asking me to do.

Watching this lady’s face while I was sharing this with her, I was astounded. She was ecstatic.

This lady had told God she wanted someone to pray for her. She would know that it was from God if the person who prayed for her spat on their fingers and placed their fingers over her eyelids.

Despite this, the lady did not receive healing at that time.

Never underestimate God’s love and compassion and His work already in their life.

Please never spit on someone’s eyes unless you genuinely believe God is asking you to do that and the person agrees.

In the Bible passage, this man’s healing was gradual, sensitive, and progressive. Jesus did not mind waiting and asking the man, “Do you see anything?” The principle here is to perform a healing action, ask if there is any change, and then try again.

So often, we believe that if we do not get it right the first time, that is the end. This belief is not valid. Jesus is showing here that sometimes healing takes time. Sometimes we need to persevere. Sometimes it just needs one more try. Other times, there is a process in healing, and it can take hours, days, weeks, or months.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every blog post, I list five 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: Using creative objects at hand, encourage everyone to dance, play, create, chat, and explore using these objects as they pray for others.

2. Group Activation: Brainstorm a group in your community who desires acceptance. As a prophetic group, prophesy into this community group’s acceptance and future.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time focussing on God and His love for you. Ask God to reveal to you words and pictures around His love and journal a love letter from God to you.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to bring to your mind someone who needs a healing touch. Ask God how He would love you to respond.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God hearing His heart for homelessness within your area/state/country. Prophesy into the outcome.

Healing Touch part 1

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Standing in our church auditorium during our Healing Service, a lady came and stood before my team members and me. As I asked this lady what she would like Jesus to do for her today, she responded by sobbing. Through her tears came the words “to feel clean.” My response was to ask her if I could hug her. I then held her in my arms for ages. Gradually, the deep sobbing eased, and the muffled tears stopped. I released her, and she looked at me with a face that was glowing. “Thank you for loving me kindly,” she said. “I have never been touched by anyone in a gentle, kind manner. Thank you.”

A gentle, appropriate touch, with permission, can result in healing – more than we can ever know or understand.

Jesus loved touching people – physically, spiritually, and emotionally. He was the master at both compassion and appropriate touch. We often read in the Gospels where Jesus reached out and appropriately touched people, and in the touch, people were healed.

In Mark 1:40-42, we read, ‘A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.’

From these verses, we read Jesus was indignant. The Aramaic word for indignant can mean both anger and compassion. Perhaps Jesus felt both angry and compassionate. We see here that Jesus felt deeply for this man. To minister like Jesus, we need to feel compassion for the people we meet.

It could be construed that Jesus was angry at being misunderstood, as His purpose was to bring healing and restoration.

From what we read and know of Jesus’ character, I believe Jesus was angry at the condition – leprosy – that made this man a social outcast. No one would have touched this man for a long time.

Imagine never knowing the touch of another human being because you were considered ‘unclean’. What impact would this have on your self-esteem and self-worth?

I believe Jesus was so angry at this dignity-stripping disease that His first action was to restore to the man the very thing the disease sought to steal from him – his worth. Jesus touched the man and restored the man’s dignity. Jesus broke societal barriers and rejection off this man. Jesus did far more than just saying “Be clean.”

It was a brave and courageous act for Jesus, as touching someone with leprosy brought shame and uncleanliness to you. Traditionally, Jesus then had to be excluded from being around people for a certain period. Jesus did not let that inhibit Him. Jesus came to destroy all those legalistic rules and lies that bound people. The superstitions around the diseases were lies, something the enemy specializes in, along with humiliation and exclusion. Jesus came to conquer this and bring freedom to all these areas.

I will never forget my first touch with leprosy. After carefully examining the sores on the child’s legs, the other nurse clinician and I glanced at each other. Our eyes communicated the unspoken disease – leprosy. That one word could still cause a feeling of dread in our minds because of the physical and social savageness and the isolation of the condition.

I internally struggled with my desire to withdraw all physical contact to lessen the likelihood of my contracting the disease. However, I deliberately kept my hands in contact with the child’s skin. I felt that showing compassion and love to the child far outweighed the emotional rejection this child may experience if I showed any fear of rejection and catching leprosy since touch transmits it.

The other nurse began explaining the condition to the child and her mother. Thankfully, there is now a treatment that means people with leprosy no longer need to be isolated after they have begun treatment. This child did not need emotional isolation along with this physical condition.

Notice how Mark writes ‘a man with leprosy’, not ‘the leper’. Your physical condition or sickness should never define who you are. To Jesus, here was a man, not a leper. Please be careful never to call or label people by their condition. I’ll expand more on ‘labels’ in a future blog.

Physical healing often follows the emotional healing. Jesus’ comment was, “Be clean.” Not “Be healed.” The man became healed by being declared clean (something that only a priest could announce). Physically, relationally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Until then, the priest was the ‘go-between’, taking man’s requests to God. Jesus came to bridge that gap so we did not need a ‘go-between’ but could go directly to God with our prayers. Jesus takes the priest’s place in this passage, foreshadowing what would occur after His resurrection.

Touch was important for Jesus. Jesus often healed people purely by touching them. A transaction occurs in the touching. Just as Jesus’ touch was powerful, so too can our touch.

A middle-aged man brought his teenage son to the Healing Rooms for prayer. After praying for the son, I asked this man if he wanted prayer for anything for himself. After a brief pause, he admitted he was the person who wanted prayer and that he had brought his son because he was too embarrassed to come for himself.

We prayed for this man and his various needs. His wife had left him, and he was lonely, scared, and depressed. He had some issues regarding his employment. We prayed for numerous physical conditions. After we prayed for the restoration of his eyesight, he could see more clearly and no longer needed his glasses.

But I still felt that this man needed something more.

My husband was praying for someone else, and I excused myself and went across to my husband. I tapped him on the shoulder and whispered that I needed him.

My husband appropriately finished with the person he was praying for and came across to me. I asked my husband to give this man a Father’s blessing.

Gary blessed this man, but the watershed moment was when my husband wrapped his arms around this man and hugged him like a father. The tears flowed from the man. This was a significant moment for him. The hug seemed to last for an eternity. This man experienced the Father in a new way.

As my husband stepped back, this man, with tears running down his face, expressed, “I am now ready to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.”

Never underestimate the significance and the power of a touch.

Questions to reflect on:

  • How compassionate am I towards others?
  • Am I carrying any shame or humiliation from the past that I need to bring before Jesus?
  • Are there any ‘labels’ that have been placed on me that need removing? How does Jesus see me?
  • When people ask for healing, is that always what they really want or need? How do I know?
  • What are my beliefs about touching someone when praying for healing for them?
  • How do I respond when asked to pray for someone with a ‘socially unacceptable’ issue?

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every blog post, I list five 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 God to show you as a family/group someone who needs comforting and cheering up. Ask God to show you how you can do this.

2. Group Activation: Ask God to show you a local societal issue with a root of hopelessness. Prophesy as a group over that issue. Ask God if there is something practical you can also do to help.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to show you someone who needs a touch from God today. Step out in courage and approach the person, asking their permission to pray and prophesy over them.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight a local funeral director and how you can encourage and prophesy over them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight a socially unacceptable disease and to show you how to prophesy into the answer.

No Formulas in Healing with God

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My 5-year-old son accidentally dropped a massive Besser brick, from a great height, on his friend’s foot, smashing a bone. Her foot was massively swollen and extremely painful. We were in Mozambique, and she was to fly back to England the next day. Unfortunately, she wasn’t allowed to fly. Flying is contraindicated with a broken bone due to the flight aggravating the swelling and placing her at increased risk of circulation loss or a blood clot.

Amidst the crying of pain, her dad and I looked at each other. There was only one solution. We needed a miracle. We needed God to show up and heal this little girl’s foot.

In that moment of utter desperation, her dad and I commanded the bones to be mended, and we watched as we immediately saw the swelling dramatically reduce. The pain eased, and all movement returned to her foot. This girl was cleared to fly home the following day as the bones were declared healed.

Several months later, a friend’s nineteen-year-old daughter broke her foot. She went to the Doctor, and X-rays were taken, which showed a fracture in her foot. The girl’s mother brought her to our home for prayer before taking her to the Orthopedic Specialist the following day. I prayed, and the pain eased but returned, only to reduce significantly overnight. Her mother requested a further x-ray before the Specialist decided whether to operate. The second x-ray showed an old trace of a break in the bone that was now fully healed. The before and after x-rays were as if they were from a different foot.

So, when my daughter’s friend had a broken bone in her hand, I wanted to pray for her so that her fracture would be healed. I prayed, and the pain and swelling lessened slightly, but not completely. Over the next few days, it became evident that the broken bone had not healed.

Reflecting on this several days later, I realized several things. First, I had reduced God’s healing to a formula. I had prayed a certain way around people with broken bones, so I had prayed the same way. Unfortunately for us, God doesn’t have a formula for healing. God is supernatural, and He heals using whatever He desires. We cannot use formulas with God. Time and again in the Bible, we read God used unconventional means to heal or to get people’s attention. A fantastic example is when Jesus heals the man who was deaf and mute in Mark 7:32-37 by spitting and touching the man’s tongue.

Second, I had become proud. My prayer for my daughter’s friend was out of pride. I had previously prayed for several people with broken bones, including the two girls above, and seen them healed. I had subconsciously developed a wrong attitude that my prayer had healed them. When I had prayed for my daughter’s friend, I had prayed, but I had not waited to ask God what He wanted me to pray. I had prayed my thoughts, not God’s thoughts.

It can be easy to believe that it all depends on us or to look for the right ‘formula’ so they will be healed. That people will be healed if we pray for them a certain way, that we can ‘fix’ people and their problems. We are not Jesus. We are not the answer to the problem. Please do not partner with the belief that you are the Messiah and that people need you to pray for them. God can always heal them another way. God is not dependent on us, but we are reliant on God.

On the other hand, we are invited to join God in seeing healings and miracles and bringing Heaven to earth. The secret is staying close to and remaining humble with Father God, Holy Spirit, and Jesus. Hearing what they want us to do and then doing that.

Questions I love to ask God are:

  • “What do you want to do in this person’s life, God?”
  • “What are you already doing and would love me to join You?”
  • “What would you love me to do and say?”
  • “How do you want me to pray, God?”

What about you? How have you seen God heal people?

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every blog post, I list five 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 outlines of the human body on paper. Ask the children which body parts God wants to heal in the group. Ask the children to colour in those body parts. Then ask the chidlren to pray for those parts to be healed.

2. Group Activation: Spread out a pack of playing cards face down on a table. Ask people to each choose a card and then to get into pairs. Ask people to prophesy over their partner using the playing card they picked up.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to show you something about yourself that God delights in. Explore this further with God, asking Him more questions about this.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to bring to mind someone who is sick. Spend time with God hearing His heart for that person and how He would love you to minister to them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight a disease to you and then to show you His heart for people with this disease. Spend time with God seeking His answer to how you are to pray about a cure for that disease.

Surgical Intervention is not Inferior Healing

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Surgical intervention is not inferior to a supernatural spontaneous healing from God. Sometimes, in our enthusiasm for miraculous healing, we can reduce the role of Doctors and medicine in the healing process.

Several years ago, we went on a journey of ‘medical’ healing.

Hubby began experiencing tingling, and extreme discomfit in his right hand and arm. This had persisted for several months, during which he hadn’t thought to tell me before then. That Sunday morning, when we were chatting in bed before getting up, I commented how Hubby should book in to see our local Doctor. That afternoon, two medical specialists were at our home for pre-engagement counselling. Hubby commented on how he wanted them both to pray for him, as they have a supernatural healing ministry. They examined him, prayed for him, and strongly suggested he see the doctor for an MRI.

The next day, hubby rang the GP. The GP was fully booked out, leaving in a couple of days for an operation herself, and would be out of the office for several weeks. Hubby decided to ‘call in’ and see her at the end of her work, and she saw him then. He then rang me at 7 pm to say he needed an MRI, but it usually takes a week to get an appointment. I suggested he ring that night and see if he could leave a message. He rang, and they told him they had just had a cancellation for that night and he could come in immediately. Thus, another miracle.

The GP received the report of the MRI the following day and asked Hubby to come in as it was serious, and she wanted to refer him to a neurosurgeon. Again, we were told there would be a delay in getting in as we were public patients and did not have private health insurance. For all this to be achieved before our GP went off for her operation was impressive.

Hubby asked people to pray for supernatural healing of the C6 prolapsed disc and bony spur. He felt that there was enough faith in our home for healing, but we also invited other members of the Healing Rooms to come and pray for healing. During this time, I saw a picture of a bone being shaved away. Our 10-year-old son heard God say that Gary would be totally healed. I had a dream where I saw Arthur Burk standing in front of me, and he said, “Gary will be healed when he deals with his stuff”. Thus, Hubby was on bed rest, and I just wanted him to ‘deal with his stuff’ and ask God what He wanted to show him during this time. Our faith in supernatural healing was high.

The following Monday, we were sitting in the Neurosurgeon’s office. We had been warned that his bedside manner left a lot to be desired, but that didn’t concern us. His expertise was more what we were focussing on. I silently released peace and God’s presence into that room, and we immediately noted a change in the Neurosurgeon’s attitude. He started sharing his heart of justice, his mother, his frustration with the health system, and his concerns with some patients. Hubby felt a spirit of fear leave him in that room, plus he also had an encounter with Father God sharing some stuff with him. The outcome was that no conservative treatment would be effective for his situation, and Hubby would need surgery, but as we were public patients, there would be a wait of several months. The Neurosurgeon organised tablets and a cortisone injection that may help whilst awaiting surgery.

We have a few friends who are doctors and physios, so Hubby got their opinion. He started physio but experienced no change. The symptoms were getting worse.

Just as the 10-day course of anti-inflammatories finished, I received a phone call saying that Hubby was booked in for surgery at a private hospital that Friday at no expense to us. All within a fortnight of seeing the surgeon.

During that fortnight, we had also been on the team at our church’s Saturday morning Healing Rooms, where the team members and the children prayed for healing—no change in symptoms. One of the team leaders approached me and said, “You know Jane, surgical intervention is not inferior to a supernatural spontaneous healing from God”. I knew that, but now I have grasped more of it.

Our response then was: does Hubby proceed with the operation, or does he wait for supernatural healing? Is God going to heal through surgery?

I rang my dad, who said, “Jane – you don’t believe in coincidences. You always say that there are never coincidences with God. It sounds like you just need to walk on through the open doors.” Another few friends then said it was like the man in a flood standing on top of a roof crying out to God for help. A plane came, then a boat, and the man shooed them away each time and said he was waiting for God. The man finally accused God of not helping, and God replied, “I sent a boat and a plane. That was me reaching out to you.”

Thus, we went ahead, and Hubby had the surgery. Removal of the C6 disc, an artificial disc inserted and the bony spur shaved off down to the bone marrow. In an operation that was meant to take about 50 minutes, it ended up being 2 ½ hours as 1-2mm metal tip of a probe broke off during the surgery, and they had to find it and remove it by suctioning it out.

Apart from that complication, he had an incredibly amazing recovery. He did not have any pain or discomfort, even over the wound site or the site where the bone was shaved dramatically. The nurses gave him some Panadol in the hospital because they had to after surgery. He also had no complications after surgery.

The following morning, when the nurse took down his wound dressing, I was amazed at the lack of swelling, inflammation, bruising, and bleeding. The suture line looked beautiful and further healed than less than 24 hours post-surgery. As an ex Coronary Care Nurse, I was used to dealing with suture lines, and it honestly looked like it was about five days post-op with the lack of redness and inflammation and the closure of the wound. He came home that day with no pain, which is the major indicator of discharge in this surgery.

I googled “Arthur Burk pre anaesthetic prayer” to prepare for Hubby’s surgery. I found a video titled “Your spirit and surgery” – https://vimeo.com/315889893 (Approx 21 minutes) In this video, he describes some tools you can use to prepare your spirit for the operating room so that the procedure and the recovery are positively affected by the dominion God designed for your spirit.

I believe these prayers and how we prayed were a major help in the lack of pain and inflammation after the surgery. I must confess that we were running out of time, so I had scribbled the prayer on a slip of paper, and as I drove to the hospital with Hubby in the car, I prayed the prayer then. Not the best environment, but wow – the result was excellent!!

Four days before last Christmas, Hubby had major eye surgery. We again prayed the pre-anaesthetic prayer; he had no pain and an uneventful recovery. Hubby jokingly shares how the surgeon peeling off the tape over his eye patch was the only ‘pain’/discomfit he felt.

For those that would like this prayer, feel free to either watch the video on this link or contact me via email for a copy of the written prayer.

God created humans with the ability to gain skills and knowledge in a variety of areas. One of those areas is in medicine and healing. Healing through medicine is as valid as seeing supernatural healing through prayer.           

      

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every blog post, I list five 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 a list of people needing healing. Write each person’s name on a separate piece of paper. Pray. Ask children to draw a picture from God for the person whose name is on the paper. Write a statement, in the child’s words, about what they felt from God. Distribute the pictures to the relevant people.

2. Group Activation: Divide the group into small groups of 2-3 people. Give each group the name of a medical specialty at a local hospital eg cardiac services, respiratory services, kidney/renal, neurological, gastrointestinal, haematology, etc. Ask each group to individually hear from God and then as a group to combine what they heared/sensed/saw and prophesy over that service/area of the local hospital.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to highlight a person to you who is having surgery. Ask God to communicate to you His heart for them and to show you how to deliver it to them.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight a hospital/medical clinic to pray and prophecy over. Spend time hearing God’s heart for that hospital/medical clinic and what He would love you to do with what He has communicated to you about that place.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight an area in the world that is in dire need of medical care and expertise. Spend time asking God to show you His heart for that area and what He would love you to do in response.

                                                                                  

Biblical Healing Principles

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God desires us to walk in total freedom. This includes complete physical, mental, emotional, and intellectual freedom.

Often our experience dictates our theology, i.e. our beliefs about God and what He can and can’t do. Before my children were radically healed of anaphylaxis and food allergies and intolerances, I believed God could heal but that He didn’t heal the ‘big’ issues in our life. My experience with having a close friend die at age 27 during surgery for a brain aneurysm repair, my mum dying of cancer three weeks after my first child was born, and our ten years of infertility all formed my belief that God only came through and healed the ‘little things’.

After years of prayer, God ‘suddenly’ healed them after Rolland Baker prayed a simple prayer of seven words “Oh God, take care of this family.” I was flabbergasted. Surely not. My religious mindset took a beating. (To read the story, please see Chapter 8 in my devotional book “Ministering like Jesus: How to Grow in Healing, Deliverance, and Miracles” (available on my website here or through Amazon).

Our children were healed, and I went on a journey of rediscovering my identity in God. This resulted in an increased intimacy with God and a faith today that believes in the impossible. God can do far above everything we could ever ask, dream, or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20).

Do you have faith that God can and will do far more than you could ever ask, dream, or imagine?

Sometimes we need to re-examine our beliefs, get stuck into reading the Bible and commit to unpacking the truths about Jesus and how that affects our lives as children of God.

Jesus is our model. When He was on earth, He walked in perfect health. Everywhere Jesus walked and desired healing for people, those people were healed. We too, can experience total healing.

Jesus has given us the authority, as children of God and joint heirs of the Father with His Son Jesus, to have authority over sickness. John 14:12 “Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these…”

God loves partnering with us. He could heal people on His own and, in fact, doesn’t need us, but He desires relationship. God loves us to partner with Him. Greater intimacy with the Father has an outcome of seeing greater result.

Biblical examples of healing:

  • Moses prayed for Miriam’s healing from leprosy – Numbers 12:10-14
  • Elisha prayed for the raising of the widow’s son – 2 Kings 4:18-37
  • Elisha sent Naaman to bathe in the Jordan River for his healings – 2 Kings 5:1-19
  • Isaiah ordered a poultice for Hezekiah’s healing – 2 Kings 20:1-11
  • Jesus healed many people eg Mark 1:29-42, Mark 3:1-10, Mark 5 etc
  • Jesus sent out His disciples to preach & heal – Matthew 10:1-8, Mark 6:7-13, Luke 9:1-6, Luke 10:1-12
  • Peter healed the lame man at the temple – Acts 3:1-10
  • Philip healed many in Samaria – Acts 8:5-7
  • Peter healed Aeneas, who was paralyzed – Acts 9:32-35
  • Peter raised Dorcas from the dead – Acts 9:36-41
  • Paul raised Eutycus from the dead – Acts 20:9-12
  • Paul performed a variety of miracles in Ephesus – Acts 19:11-12
  • Plus many more examples in the Gospels

God gave gifts of healing to people (1 Corinthians 12) to use them.

God’s love is often demonstrated through healing.

Jesus expressed his mission in terms of language that expresses His love. His mandate in Luke 4:18-21 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Healing the sick is a demonstration of God’s power. Jesus showed authority over sickness, disease, and demon possession by healing the sick. (Colossians 1: 15-18)

In the Gospels, we see Jesus authorizing and commanding His disciples to heal the sick. We, too, are His disciples if we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. We, too, are called to heal the sick.

Luke 9:1-2, 6 “When Jesus had called the twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick… So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.”

When Jesus commissioned the disciples, He gave them authority to do everything He had been doing, including healing the sick. Matthew 28: 18-20 “Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded.”

Mark 16:17-18 “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

Are you walking in your full authority as a child of the Most High God?

Is some of the fruit of your relationship with God seeing sick people healed?

Foundational beliefs

  1. God’s desire is for everyone to be healed.
  2. God is always good. There is no sickness in God or in Heaven. God is never bad.
  3. The devil is always bad and only bad. He can never be good.
  4. God’s will is healing and health. Health is good.
  5. The devil’s mandate is to kill, steal, and destroy. One of his methods is through sickness. Sickness is not good.
  6. Jesus didn’t have a ‘formula’ for healing. It is not about how and what we pray.
  7. God also uses medical professionals to heal us.

What about people who are not healed?

At this stage, you may have a question: Why doesn’t God heal everyone? Great question. A plethora of answers. One of those answers is relationship and intimacy. As stated above, God desires to partner with us to bring forth healing. Other times, I have no idea. If I were God, I would want to heal everyone, but I don’t have His wisdom, knowledge, or the ‘full’ picture.

Sickness is not of God, and we are not ‘called’ to put up with being sick.

Is there an area in your belief about sickness that you are being called to re-examine?

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 birthday candles and matches. Take it in turns to have each child hold a lighted candle. When they are holding the lighted candle, have the rest of the family/group share encouraging words that God is putting in their minds about the person and declare them out aloud over the person.

2. Group Activation: Ask people for words of knowledge about what God would love to heal for people in the group. Gather around the relevant people who are suffering from the conditions highlighted and pray for them.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to highlight any false beliefs you may have incorporated about God and healing. Ask God to show you His truth.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight a person whom you will meet today that you can take the initiative to pray for healing for them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight to you a health condition affecting a vast number of people. Ask God to show you what He would like you to do and declare in relation to His desired outcome.

Which lens are you looking through?

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This morning while watering the vegetable garden, I asked God many questions. Questions like “How do you want me to pray for my kids at the moment?”, “What should my involvement in Healing Rooms look like in 2023?”, “What about church?” etc. All big and important questions. I was expectant. Expecting God to download the answer to me immediately.

Simple.

Except I was not getting any answers. I change my question when I don’t get an answer or find it hard to hear God.

I changed my questions as I simultaneously placed the hose nozzle in the watering can on full bore. Loud noise filled the air. I said aloud, “I can’t hear God clearly in this din.”

Since I wanted to finish watering my plants and needed to fill the watering can for the final stretch, I kept the hose inside it, the din continuing. Meanwhile, another thought filled my mind. When I have junk in my life or stuff that’s not yet healed, I see and hear God through the lens of that unhealed ‘junk’. I took a few moments to ask God what lens or junk I was looking through at Him and trying to hear Him.

Sometimes we have placed walls up, walls of protection.

Other times, we may have withdrawn.

We may have had disappointments. Disappointment in God. In others. In ourselves.

Sometimes we still need a revelation of God’s love in a particular area of our life.

Sometimes we may be holding on to something tightly and not ready to surrender that to God fully.

An hour later, I was at a Doctor’s appointment. The Doctor shared with me how he and his wife wanted to do medical mission work overseas but didn’t want to go until their children were adults. They didn’t want their children to be laden with any serious medical issues from the parasites of third-world countries. I challenged him. “Did he have the faith to trust God to care for his children?”.

Today my friends, you have an opportunity to examine if you are perhaps looking at God through a particular lens.

The lens may be clear, cloudy, scratched, or coloured.

Usually, our lens being cloudy, scratched, or coloured means we have incorporated a faulty belief into our thinking.

Below are some prompts to ask God to hear His perspective on your current lens.

  1. “Father God, is there an area I still need to surrender to you?”
  2. “God, what do you say about …..?”
  3. “Lord, can you please show me any areas in my life or thoughts that are not in agreement with you, Lord?”
  4. “God, is there a lie I am believing about you?” If you hear, sense, or think of anything here, then deal with it with God. Repent. Then ask God, “what is the truth you want me to know?”
  5. “Holy Spirit, is there anyone I still need to forgive?” (If a person immediately comes to mind, please take that as a sign that forgiveness is still required).
  6. “Father God, is there a bitter root I’ve allowed to develop in my life from past hurts?”
  7. “Father God, what walls of protection have I built in my life?”

To help you unpack this further, take a few moments to spend time with God and ask:

  • Father God, is there any lie or faulty belief I am believing?
  • Grab the first thought through your head and explore that.
  • Ask God to show or tell you why you believe that.
  • Ask God if there is anyone you need to forgive. If anyone comes to mind, forgive that person. Bless them. Do you need to forgive yourself?
  • Ask Father God to show, tell, or give you the truth.

God loves questions. Feel free to explore any of the above questions with Him.

God is also in the business of miracles, as nothing is too hard for Him. Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.”

You may even appreciate and benefit from having some prayer ministry by a trusted, experienced person. Reach out to someone for help if you need to. Intimacy with Father God, Holy Spirit, and Jesus is so important, and often, we may not realize that past hurts are clouding our relationship.

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 pencils, crayons and paper. Ask everyone to draw what God would love their teacher to know at the moment. Pass the papers on to the appropriate teacher.

2. Group Activation: Buy coloured jellybeans or smarties and place in a bowl. Get into small groups of 5-6 people with a bowl of jellybeans/smarties in each group. Ask everyone to take one and to take note of the colour they selected. If their lolly was yellow/orange – give a prophetic word to the person on their left. Red/pink – to the person opposite them. Blue/white – a person who serves well. Green – the quietest person in the group. Black/purple/brown – to the person they know the least.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time focusing on God. Ask Him to show you what type of light you are and why.

4. Intermediate Activation: Spend time with God asking Him for a prophetic word for your member of Parliament. Ask God if you are to share it with them and how, or if it is for you to pray.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to show you His heart for the people in Turkey/Syria with the earthquake devastation. Ask God what He would like your response to be. Craft a prophetic word for you to declare about the outcome for these countries.

Tread Your God-Ordained Path

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A young mum and her toddler caught my attention today. This toddler was exploring and tottering along the footpath, obviously only recently begun walking. I loved how the mum kept pace with the toddler and allowed her to explore and walk her path. In the busyness of this Christmas season, the mum may have been tempted to pick the toddler up and carry her, as it would be much quicker. But no, she allowed her daughter to wander, explore, and gain strength in her ability to walk.

It reminded me of how the Holy Spirit walks with us, allowing us to explore, try new things, and become bolder.

Several weeks ago, I felt to write this blog post titled “Tread your own path”. As I have mused on this post since then before releasing it, the strong conviction that we are not to be self-centred has permeated my thoughts. Instead, we are to tread our path, which is the path that God has ordained for us.

I am not advocating that there is only one path we are meant to be on and that we are out of God’s will if we make a decision that deviates from God’s single path for us. Instead, I am encouraging everyone to be constantly communing with God and sensing His wisdom and thoughts about our next steps.

This requires devouring His Word – both the written and the spoken. Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” This requires us to know our Bible and what the Bible says.

It requires us to be courageous to walk our God-ordained paths. To not follow the crowd. To allow Romans 12:2 to infiltrate every part of our life. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

I sense some readers need to make bold decisions and not follow the path of other Christians. Not that the path is wrong, per se. It’s just not what you are called to do in this next season. It may be as simple as the people you usually listen to live at a different pace than you, and you feel pressure to conform. Let’s return Jesus’ voice to the dominant guide in our life.

I sense 2023 is heralding in a new season. Yes, the world has changed as we once knew it. We are living a new normal. I feel there are many opportunities for us as Christians to take possession of ‘land’, however that looks, but it will require the sacrifice of going against the crowd and the usual way you have been ‘doing life’.

I strongly sense that we will see people begin living their true identity and calling. Knowing your identity can be as simple as asking Father God, “Who do you say I am?” or “What am I known as in Heaven?”

What are you praying and declaring over yourself, your family, your creative ability, your relationships this coming year? How BIG are those prayers and declarations? Are you declaring words you believe are from God that only He can bring about through miraculous means?

I have been reflecting on the miraculous provisions our family has experienced this year. God showed up in mind-blowing ways. I believe a key in this was when I began listening to God and asking Him His view on certain situations and then declaring that aloud into the atmosphere. We saw miracle after miracle. We saw God changing circumstances that were seemingly unchangeable. If you would like more information on this, I have a pdf download ‘Speak Life’ on my website.

As I was reading Deuteronomy 1, verse 8 struck me. “See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the Lord swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.”

What has God already given you?

What has He promised you?

What have your prophetic words said that is yet to come to fruition?

Are you going (moving forward) towards this?

Are you taking (fighting) for your inheritance, your ‘land’?

Are you working with your prophetic words to see them come to fruition? We can’t wait for them to occur, but we have a responsibility to partner with them to see them come true.

How do we do this? Unpack your prophetic words to discover your identity, destiny, and who God wants to be personally for you.

Next February, I hope to have an e-course available that can help you unpack your prophetic words and implement actions in your life to see them come to fruition. Stay tuned for further details!!

I also sense there is a repositioning in the Spirit. Several months ago, before the Victorian state election, I released a word on social media highlighting this. Here is the transcript:

“This last week, I sensed many people are experiencing (or are about to experience) a repositioning. Slight movements for some. Major movements for others. What may feel like a sideways movement is, in fact, protection. Do not despise those small movements. They are in preparation for the next promotion.

On a larger scale, there is also repositioning occurring. Where I live, it is currently blowing a gale. No rain. Purely fierce winds. Battling the wind whilst walking, I sensed God was confirming the winds are related to the repositioning. The physical winds are blowing the crud out and shifting things in the physical. It is exposing the undergrowth and allowing everyone to see the mess. I sense this is also occurring in the spiritual, especially in Victoria (Australia), as we are gearing up for the state election. As we keep our eyes and hearts focused on God, I see Him blowing the evil out of our government and exposing the enemy’s lies.

There are pockets of revival occurring here in Victoria. I was reminded that true revival brings societal change. Crime rates will decrease. Relationships restored. Righteousness will reign. Right minds and clarity for those troubled. Homeless housed. Hungry fed.

Keeping our hearts and minds focused on Father God, Holy Spirit, and Jesus as we move forward both in the spirit and physically.”

I encourage you over the next few weeks in what is traditionally a time of reflection over the past twelve months and the setting of goals for the new year, to allow Father God to show you if there are any areas of ‘crud’ in your life, any lies you are believing about your future, and if there is a repositioning Father God would love you to manoeuvre. Jeremiah 33:3 is such an encouragement – “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

I encourage you to reassess your accountability and running partners during this time. Those people who spur you on, who encourage and challenge you to be all whom God has called you to be. People who walk beside you in one or more areas of your life. Usually, this may be a plethora of people instead of a single person trying to fulfil the whole gamut.

I am updating the ‘Align 2022‘ pdf on my website for the 2023 year. This fantastic resource helps you reflect on the year and plan for the coming year. There are new sections covering emotional discipline, dream killers, handling fear, identifying the people I need to surround myself with in various areas, skills to learn/upgrade, etc. There will also be a section where you can prophesy over yourself for each month of 2023. Last week, I recorded a prophecy for myself for each month of 2023 whilst driving my son to and from Air Force Cadets. In thirty minutes, I recorded a prophecy for most months of 2023, along with a significant date and event within each month. I will write these out, put them in my calendar, and check how accurate my prophesying was. My prophetic ability will grow as a result, plus it encourages me to continue to seek God for myself rather than someone else.

As you celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and all that means, may you experience renewed joy, peace, love, and freedom.

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 pencils and spend time asking God what picture of encouragement He would have family members draw for the postman or garbage collector.

2. Group Activation: Distribute twelve sheets of paper to everyone. Ask them to write their name and a different month of the year at the top of every sheet eg first sheet – January, second sheet February etc. Collect the sheets and redistribute to group members so each person has a variety of people’s names. Ask Group members to take thirty minutes to ask God what to write on each sheet of paper ie prophesy what will happen for that person in that month next year. Ask God if there is a special date within the month or an event that may occur and write that on the paper. Collect the paper and give to the named people. Remember to revisit this activity mid next year to see the accuracy of these prophetic words.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God. Ask Him what He would love you to know about Christmas for you and about Christmas for Him. Explore this further by asking God more questions.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight a person and a Christmas ornament that you could buy for them that signifies something God would love them to know.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God hearing His heart for your area for this coming year. Ask Him what He would love you to do about the information you receive.