Category Archives: Father’s Heart

Your Identity as a Prophetic Person

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Four weeks ago, my dad died. During the few days of dad being sick in hospital interstate, travelling for that and also for the funeral a week later and then dealing with dad’s house and belongings, I learnt a lot about myself and helping others dealing with grief. Everyone expresses grief differently.

Timing coincided with five other friends having their parent or an immediate family member die in the last four weeks as well. We have been to a lot of funerals this past month!

A question I have had is what is the most effective way that I can support my friends or someone dealing with grief. During this time, I have valued love, encouragement, generosity, prayer and a listening ear. Everyone expresses grief differently but there are some common elements.

  1. Our identity – in Christ or in your gifting?

The first of my biggest ‘ah-ha’ moment for me came with the realisation that our identity is who we really are in Christ. Our identity is not based in our gifting.

I had a friend who is experienced in prayer ministry try a method of prayer ministry on me during this time, not at my instigation but out of them operating out of their gifting being their identity. It left me feeling ‘robbed’ and ‘used’ when I really thought she was contacting me to listen to my journey, not probe deeply. I have had another with a prophetic gifting giving me a prophetic word when all I needed was a listening ear and love.

As someone with a prophetic or supernatural gifting, has that become your identity or is your identity still based in who you are as a child of God just with a prophetic or healing gifting attached?

Your prophetic gifting is a necessary function here on earth that is used to build the Kingdom of God here on earth. It is not who you are in Christ. We are not defined by our role but by our personhood and Father.

In your everyday life, do you operate out of who you are as a child of God or out of your gifting?

  1. The power of praying for someone

My second ‘ah-ha’ moment came with the realisation of the power of praying for someone in the here and now. Over the last several years, I have tried to apply the pattern that I wouldn’t say that I would pray for someone without then and there actually praying for that person out aloud with them. Often over the phone I will pray for someone. This really impacted me several times as I was sharing with close friends during the initial stages of dad’s hospitalisation about whether the doctors could actually operate on him without him dying during the operation or leave him to die. I desperately would have appreciated these friends praying for me over the phone. There was often a long silence, and they may have been praying for me silently, but I would have appreciated being prayed for out aloud over the phone. Those times that friends did pray for me, I definitely felt something shift and happen during that time.

  1. We are called to love and encourage

My third ‘ah-ha’ moment came with the fact that we are called to encourage and love. That’s it. Love and encourage. It doesn’t matter if our prophecies are not the best. What matters most is our ability to love and encourage well.

1 Corinthians 13:2 says “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”

1 Corinthians 14:3 says “But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.”

Encouragement and comfort can be expressed in a variety of different ways – not just in prophetic words. A phone call, hugs, meals prepared (I had never experienced an uber meal before but this was a beautiful gift from a friend), practical needs being met, unexpected expenses covered, animals cared for, a listening ear allowing the grieving person to share, attending the funeral (wherever possible) to support your friend etc are all amazing ways of showing love and comfort. I had a close high school friend, whom I haven’t been in contact with for at least ten years but who lived close to where my dad lived, come to dad’s funeral to show her support for me. That gesture really touched me immensely.

A coffee date especially at the 6 week mark when friends are busy and the person dealing with grief is still dealing with the immediacy of the loved one no longer being present is also great. Expressing love, encouragement and comfort during times of loss can be huge and speak volumes and convey God’s love in ways we may never total understand.

Prophetic people are encouragers. Part of their identity, apart from being a child of God, is that they are true encouragers. They see the best in people. They see the ‘gold’ inside people and love helping to find and unlock that gold so that the person can become all that God has called them to become. Prophetic people are ‘gold’ diggers. To be prophetic yet ooze discouragement is an oxymoron.

How well do you love and encourage those around you?

What is your identity based in – your gifting or your sonship?

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 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: In preparation, cut out of gold coloured cardboard large round circles for ‘gold’ coins. Give out a ‘gold coin’ to each person and ask them to write a prophetic word or draw a picture that will be like gold for someone. Ask God to show each person who they are writing / drawing it for. Then give the cardboard coin to that person to encourage them.

2. Group Activation: In preparation for this activation, ask group members to bring a childhood photo of themselves. Collect the photos during the session and hand out the photos randomly to participants along with a sheet of paper. Ask each participant to write a prophetic word for the child in the photo they were given. Allow participants 10 minutes to write a prophetic word and then ask participants to one at a time show the group the photo and give the photo and the prophetic word to the rightful owner.

3. Beginner Activation: Try this week to say something encouraging to as many people as you can. Be careful not to say false encouragement but ask God to show you His heart for each person and encourage them in this.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you someone who is grieving. Ask God how you can most effectively show love and encouragement to them this week.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to bring you into contact with a Foster family or someone who works in the Foster system. Ask God to show you His heart for these children and their carers and how you can most effectively communicate it to them and their carers.

A Blessing for Fathers

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My daughter and my dad

My daughter and my dad

Dad, I call your spirit to attention and bless you with knowing how much you are loved.

I bless you with deeply knowing and understanding that you are known, wanted, and loved and that people care for you and about you.

I bless you with knowing that God thought of you at the beginning of time and created you with your unique design, personality and giftings for this current time.

I bless you with knowing your true identity, who you really are and who you were created to be and living and operating from this place.

I bless you with being able to deal with the past and your own upbringing so that all hurts and longings and unmet needs and expectations can be dealt with appropriately and that you are able to move on, restored and having the ability to love regardless.

I bless you with seeing all your brokenness become something beautiful. I bless you with every weakness becoming a strength. I bless you with trusting in Jesus no matter what.

I bless you with your life becoming an amazing testimony of Jesus’ redemptive love. I bless you with seeing your dreams get wings and begin to fly.

I bless you with knowing how to show love and care for those around you, especially your family and children. I bless you with understanding each of your children’s love languages and how they best receive your love and your being able to meet them in this and express love in this way to them.

I bless you with being able to frequently craft out time to spend with each of your children one on one and that they know you care deeply about them. I bless the time you spend with each of your children, pouring blessing, love and joy into their lives and creating special memories for and with them.

I bless you with being able to speak true identity into each of your children’s lives and that they draw closer to Father God through your example of being a Father.

I bless you with kindness, tenderness, courage and strength. That when they need a kind word, you are there. When they need tenderness shown, you are there. When they need courage and stamina, you are there encouraging and spurring them on. That your children can become all that they were created to become.

I bless you with being a protector, a lover, a person full of courage and boldness, an adventurer and explorer, a provider, an encourager, a dreamer, a true friend, and having a father’s heart.

I bless you with being able to show interest in the things your kids are interested in and to draw them closer to the things you are interested in.

I bless you with being able to have fun and to bring much joy and laughter with you wherever you go.

I bless you with giving lots of hugs and kisses and loving to wrestle.

I bless you with stewarding your children in the ways of God and in loving the Father, Son and Holy Spirit with an unending passion and joy that transforms their life and those who come into contact with them.

I bless you with knowing that you and your children are God’s sons and daughters with whom He is well pleased and operating out of that place.

I bless you with leaving an amazing spiritual, physical and emotional legacy for your future generations.

Amen

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 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 each person a piece of paper and crayons/pencils/textas and ask them to ask God what picture to draw for their dad (or significant male adult) to show how God loves them. It’s usually a great idea to date the picture and perhaps write the words on the paper that the child uses to explain the picture.

2. Group Activation: Hand out sheets of paper & pens and ask everyone to spend some time crafting a letter to their dad, thanking him, blessing him, prophesying over him etc. Encourage people to still do this even if their dad has died and to do it as a way of expressing thanks to their dad.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to show you the good stuff about your dad or your children’s dad. Spend time writing it down. Craft a blessing or prophetic word about their fathering and release it over the person.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you someone who is fatherless. Craft a prophetic word for them about being fathered and release it to them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight to you a men’s group eg Men’s Shed, a dad’s group fighting Family Court for Equal Access etc. Spend time with God asking how you can formulate a blessing and a prophetic word for this group. Then release it over the group in whatever way God shows you.

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

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

 

                        What was the difference?

 

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

 

How do you ‘grow’ your spirit?

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

 

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

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

 

How do I ‘bless my spirit’?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Blessing:

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

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

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

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

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Does it really matter?

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

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

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

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

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

Do you continually release rest and peace into your world?

What would others say about you?

Do you bring chaos with you?

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

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

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

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

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

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

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

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

Authority – Living from a Place of Victory (part 3)

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Imagine your dad owned a huge company that employed many people. Over many years, your dad has been trying to implement a new method of operating. He has completed just about all the background work and it is nearly ready for the big day when it is going to be officially implemented. You have spent a lot of your time just hanging around your dad whilst he had been working on it. You weren’t an employee, you were the boss’s kid and so you had free reign where you went and what you did. You loved the smell of your dad’s office and being with Him whilst He worked. He often talked aloud of what He was doing and you were passionate about what He was doing since you just loved being with Him. Your dad included you in the brainstorming of the solutions to problems. Your dad often allowed you to implement the changes.

The big day arrives and unexpectedly your dad can’t make the official opening. He asks you instead, as His representative, to be there as His delegated authority. You know the workings of it nearly as much as He does because of all the time you have spent with Him and the intimacy of the working conditions. Your dad has complete faith and trust in you. He knows that you understand what is required to be done and how to solve many of the issues. Thus, he delegates his authority to you.

Imagine this is God and He is asking you to heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, change nature. What is your response?

Knowing our authority and the manner in which we walk in it can change our life. It impacts the way we pray, how we pray, what we say, our actions, our lifestyle. In fact, it can completely change how we live our life.

 

                         Authority is delegated power.

 

Jesus has complete authority and He gave us authority to do whatever He did plus more. (John 14:12)

Last week I posted about identity and living from a place of how God sees us as that will always be more accurate and far better than how we see ourself. Out of our identity and our intimacy with Father God comes our authority.

When we have a faulty belief system, it definitely shows up here. How we view and believe what God can and will do, certainly impacts the authority we operate in. When we believe that God is always good and wants to heal and can heal anything, it changes the way we pray for people and what we pray.

I can remember being in a Board meeting of our Healing Rooms and the Director was sharing about a team member needing heart surgery and she went on to explain the condition. I was a Coronary Care specialist nurse for over 25 years so I knew what she was talking about. I just automatically went to the position of the operation would be the best outcome for that type of condition. As we prayed, I said, “Father God, if it is your will to heal this person without surgery…”. The Director stopped me right there and said, “Jane, we don’t pray that way.”. I was rightly reprimanded as that is not exercising my faith and authority as a daughter of the Healing God that we love and serve. God wants to heal everyone. Fair enough, some people’s healing does come through having surgery but we do not pray, “if it is your will to heal”.

I have had to intentionally grow my faith so that it is bold and so that I operate from a belief system that God can do anything, that the impossible can become possible with God.

Some of the ways that I have grown my faith have included:

  • I have intentionally blessed my spirit. I call my spirit to attention and bless it with increased faith. I bless it with knowing beyond a doubt that Father God can and will do the impossible. That Father God specialises in making the impossible the possible.
  • Personally experiencing miracles and healing.
  • Studying the Bible and what it says about faith, healing, God.
  • Surrounding myself with people of great faith, who know the Bible and live by the promises in the Bible.
  • Listening to great teaching about the promises in the Bible
  • Spending time with God asking Him the hard questions and growing in intimacy with Him.
  • Prayer ministry has been another way that has helped me to see some faulty beliefs that I had about God. When I now react in a manner that is inappropriate to a situation eg get angry, I try to take a few minutes to ask God, “Father God, can you please show me why I acted that way. What lie am I believing? After I have my answer, and confess that lie/belief to God, I then ask God, “What truth do you want me to know instead?”

Sometimes we don’t actually realise how much we have grown in a certain area until we are around people who have a different belief system to ourselves. This was very evident to me last week when I was asked to give words of knowledge at a healing course and then pray for people who came forward.  I was gobsmacked by how many people said, “My back’s killing me” and “I’m going blind and there’s nothing that can be done about it” or “God’s never healed me before”. It also struck me how many people assumed that the Doctor’s diagnosis of their condition was true and final.

One of the reasons I was astounded by these words were that I have realised that what we say out of our mouths has a direct correlation with what happens to us in life and whether or not we get our healing. (My next blog post will be on what we say and the impact it has.)

For us to see the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, it will require us to go after it wholeheartedly. This is not for the faint hearted. Matthew 11:11 says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the Kingdom of Heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force.” I am not advocating violence. Here it is talking about violence as chasing after it with zeal and intense exertion. To press into it with fervour resembling violence and desperation. It expresses the earnestness that we need to have to be rid of all sin and unbelief in our life and to rid this earth of all power belonging to Satan.

Do you want to see God’s Kingdom established here on earth, here in your life? Do you want to see healing restored back to its rightful place as part of the normal Christian life?

Jesus, towards the end of His time here on earth, tells His disciples that “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater than these” (John 14:12). Matthew 28:17 has Jesus saying, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go…” He gives us the authority to do what He has been doing.

Matthew 16:18 says, “… I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.”

Are you chasing after bringing Heaven (& all that is in Heaven eg health, love, peace, joy, extravagance etc) to earth?

How could you change your life or your belief system so what Christ commanded us to do and be, actually occurs within your lifestyle?

When Jesus Christ was on earth, He gave His disciples authority over demons, nature/weather, death, sickness, sin, poverty and everything that wasn’t in Heaven. We are given the same authority but it seems to be unusual to see us exhibiting that same authority that the disciples had and used.

For us to operate from a position of authority requires us to have some experience in that area. Heidi Baker prays with authority for anyone who is blind as she knows that they will obtain their sight. When Heidi Baker first began praying for blind people, she did not see any difference though for the first 100 blind people she prayed for.

 

                         But she persevered.

 

She then saw breakthrough and she now operates in amazing authority whenever eye problems are an issue.

What prevents us as Christians from operating in that realm and with that same authority?

I believe when we spend time with God and are intimate with God and truly know the Father’s heart for us, then we can’t help but know that He wants people healed and has given us that responsibility and authority.

My prayer is that you will ponder these questions and, if need be, make some life changing decisions and actions.

Feel free to comment below with your thoughts.

 

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Draw an outline of a person on a piece of paper. Give a copy to everyone. Ask everyone to colour in or write or draw on a particular are of the body that God shows or tells them. Share what body parts are highlighted. Ask if anyone present has a pain or injury or needs healing for any of those body parts. Pray for those people, preferably getting the people who had the word of knowledge about a body part doing the praying for healing for that body part. If no-one present has an injury or needs healing, keep a look out for the next person you see who needs healing of that body part.

2. Group Activation: Get into pairs. Ask each person to listen to God for what to pray over their partner, particularly in the area of identity, intimacy with God and authority. Ask them to call their partner’s spirit to attention and bless their spirit with what God has shown them. Take turns blessing each other with this.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God if there is a lie you are believing about operating in your God given authority that you have as a Christian? If He reveals a lie to you, repent and ask God to show you His truth. Then immediately start believing this truth and making it a part of your belief system and life style. Step out in faith in one area this week using your God given authority.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you a person in authority who needs encouragement. Spend time with God getting a prophetic word for that person. Take time to ask God how (eg written or spoken) and when you are to deliver it to that person. Then do it.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to show you a new area and level of authority that He wants you to grow in. Ask God to highlight this to you and begin to contend for this in your life.

Identity – Living from a place of Victory (part 2)

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Have you ever watched a young child automatically approach their father and reach up for a hug and a sit on the father’s lap, even amidst an important occasion for the father? This child automatically knows his or her position as a child of that father. Their identity is secure in their father’s love for them and their authority as a child of that father to approach him whenever or wherever.

When we do not know our true identity and we are not living in that, we leave ourselves wide open to everything that Satan can fling at us. I believe one of our greatest weapons in living a life of victory and defeating Satan is that of knowing and living in our true identity. When we combine this with using our authority as sons and daughters of the most High God, we have an amazing weapon, an amazing freedom, an amazing life.

Our identity is so very important.

We defeat our internal giants before we can take on external giants.

Becoming the person God sees us as is claiming and possessing our internal territory. Thus, if we are afraid and haven’t gone after inner peace with God, then we can’t expect to come against fear in the atmosphere or in someone else’s life.

I personally believe that how we see ourselves, the identity that we have from our perspective, will never be as great as how God sees us. God sees us as so brilliant and I don’t think we ever really fully comprehend the enormity of how God sees us as individuals. I believe that God is always inviting us to a deeper level of understanding of our identity and how we see ourselves. This is all tied up with our self worth and our values.

James Hird, a famous Melbourne footballer and coach, recently wrote an article in ‘The Age’ newspaper about Essendon football players and the drug controversy. His article included the following paragraph -“Football, rightly or wrongly, was our identity…over time (the controversy) stripped away our identity, our value and our worth. When people do that to you, you are vulnerable to go down a path…that maybe you wouldn’t have gone down otherwise.”

It’s so important that we don’t get our identity from what we do. This not only leaves us vulnerable, but it leaves us incomplete. Our identity is not about doing. It is all about being but it affects our doing. Our doing comes out of our identity and we must learn to separate them. Otherwise we will get caught up in a performance mentality.

Satan challenged Jesus about His identity. Matthew 4:1-11 is when Satan met with Jesus in the wilderness and challenged Jesus about His core beliefs – who He was. Satan also challenged Jesus to worship him. I believe our worship flows automatically out of who we are. When we grasp and fully believe who we are as sons and daughters of the most High King, we cannot help but worship God extravagantly. Worship flows out of who we are and who God is.

Once our identity is based on how God sees us, it is an easy next step to walk in authority. Just like worship flows automatically from our identity, so too does our authority.

Jesus, towards the end of His time here on earth, Jesus tells His disciples that “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater than these” (John 14;12). Matthew 28:17 has Jesus saying, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go…” He gives us the authority to do what He has been doing.

Our identity affects our authority and the way we pray.

How we walk in our identity and authority as royal sons and daughters will automatically affect the way we pray. Whether we approach God as a desperate beggar or as a confident son or daughter affects the outcome. It also affects how Satan approaches us and what he knows of our weaknesses.

The quest to discover more of our true identity and to live from that place is one of the reasons that I am a huge advocate of prayer ministry or inner healing. I advocate that it is great to have an annual time of where you go deeper with God and receive healing and insight into more of who you really were created to be. Just like you service your car so that it continues to run smoothly, I believe that it is great to have a time of ‘inner service’ on ourselves so that we can deal with any small issues before they become bigger issues and also to dig down deeper into issues of self worth, value and authority.

Whenever we react in a manner that surprises us or we over-react to something, then it is definitely time to take a moment and ask God “What lie am I believing at the moment?” After God shares that with you, confess that lie to God and ask Him, “What truth do you want to replace that with God?”. God will always come through for you and help you replace lies with His truth.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Make up some cookie/biscuit dough. Divide into enough lots so that every member of the family/group has enough. Ask each person to fashion/mould a shape or something out of the dough that represents another person’s identity – that of who God says they are. If you have enough dough, keep going so that everyone can make something for every other person. Tell each other what you have created. Then cook the biscuits and enjoy eating them.

2. Group Activation: Make enough play dough so that every person has some. (Google ‘no cook play dough recipe’ for a quick and easy recipe.) Get into pairs and ask each person to craft something out of the play dough that describes their partner’s identity of how God sees them. Give your partner the crafted item and share the meaning with them.

3. Beginner Activation: Open your fridge or food cupboard. Ask God to highlight a particular food item. Ask God to then show or tell you how that relates to you and your relationship with God.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight a person to you this week who doesn’t realise their full identity in Christ. Ask them if you can share with them how God sees them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight an area of sin that your nation / culture has now accepted as a normal part of life. Spend time with God asking Him for His perspective on this and what response He wants you to make.

Worship – Living from a Place of Victory

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Friends of ours live and work overseas and also have a house back here in Australia. They come back for a fortnight to Australia every 4-6 months. I will never forget my friend sharing how they always left Christian worship music playing on repeat in their Australian house when they returned overseas. My friend shared how they never had to worry about their garden as no weeds ever grew in it and she surmised it was due to the worship music saturating the atmosphere of her house and garden. One time, they had had someone stay at the house just after they had left for overseas. This person had turned off the Christian worship music whilst they had been at the house. They had not turned it on when they left. When my friends returned three months later, there were weeds two feet high all throughout the front yard.

Can worship make that much difference?

It seems totally absurb but our God is powerful and giving Him His worth through worship is extremely powerful.

I look at it from a different angle and say why wouldn’t it do that as worship changes everything.

When we worship, we give God all the glory and God can’t help but come and invade the praise of His people. With God present with us, our perspective changes, our actions change, and our problems seem smaller.

Worship changes atmospheres.

Worship changes our focus.

Worship helps us realise our identity and position in the heavenly realms.

I would rather be fighting from a position of worship and having ‘the joy of the Lord as my strength’ (Nehemiah 8:10) than be focusing on the devil and how to protect myself.

The devil will not co-exist with God and our worship. Thus, I much rather prefer to worship God and let the devil flee without giving him any attention.

When I was a young Christian, a lot of emphasis was put on “living a victorious christian lifestyle”. The only hassle was that it was all about living from a defensive position. The devil seemed huge and I had to build myself up and get rid of any sin in my life so as to be able to defeat him.

When I worship God, I am on the offensive, not the defensive. Worship becomes the first thing, in every situation. In fact, worship becomes a lifestyle. I love living from a lifestyle of victory and having the attitude and actions that we are coming from the position of the winning side. It changes my whole perspective.

We were made to worship God. If we are not worshiping God, then what are we worshiping? Whatever that is, it is an idol.

This is the first blog in a series of blogs covering living from a place of victory. This series will include blogs about the things we say and declare, living a godly lifestyle, changing atmospheres, blessing your spirit, spiritual ‘cleanliness’ before and after ministry, rest etc. If you are not a subscriber to this blog, I encourage you to subscribe so that you don’t miss out on part 2.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Buy an art canvas for each family member. Set up the paints and allow each person to paint their canvas background. When the paint is dry, grab some permanent markers. Write each person’s name in the middle of their canvas. Focus on one family member at a time. Brainstorm as a family the strengths of that person and the words that God would use to describe that person. Write these words on that family member’s canvas. You may like to hang each person’s canvas in their bedroom as a visual reminder of what God thinks of them.

2. Group Activation: Get into groups of 3. Elect one person to receive the prophetic word. The other 2 people in the group will play ‘prophetic table tennis’ – one person starts giving a prophetic word, the second person then carries on giving the prophetic word in the same vein of thought, then it returns to person number one to expand even deeper on that thread, then back to number two to expand deeper still. Try not to introduce any thing that doesn’t follow that thread. Instead, ask God how you can go deeper with just the one thread of thought. After you finish that one concept/thought etc, switch positions for someone new to receive a prophetic word.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to highlight to you an area of your home that seems dreary or unproductive or somewhere that you prefer not to relax in. Leave worship music playing quietly in that area for the next week/fortnight and see if it ‘feels’ any different or anyone else notices any change.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God for an encouraging Bible passage for someone undergoing a difficult season. Communicate this to that person in a loving, encouraging manner.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight an MK (Child of a missionary) or a PK (Child of a Pastor). Ask God for a prophetic word for that child. Write a letter to that child highlighting what God has shared with you about that child and how great God sees them.

Easter Blessing

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I have written a blessing down for you to read aloud over yourself as you prepare for Easter. Just as the disciples walked to Bethany, ate with Jesus in the Upper Room, tried to stay alert all night, felt the pain of betrayal, experienced brokenness, saw dreams die, waited in the period of the unknown, confronted with forgiveness and then experienced a new season of hope and life, may you be blessed as you journey through similar periods in your life.

I encourage you to put your name in the space and say this blessing over yourself out aloud. There is power in not only reading a blessing but speaking it out aloud over you and calling your spirit to attention first. Calling your spirit to attention first just helps your spirit to stand up and take special notice. It helps grow your spirit on the inside. I am discovering tremendous power, growth, comfort, encouragement and healing coming from being blessed and saying blessings over my spirit and growing my spirit. I encourage you to do the same. I especially love to bless my children as you can almost see the visible difference in them as their spirits are encouraged and blossom in response.

Blessing at Easter:

“……(your own name)…., I call your spirit to attention and I bless you with knowing how valuable, precious, unique and beautiful you are. I bless you with knowing how important you are to God, your family and friends and to this world. I bless you….(your name)… with an increased awareness of God, Holy Spirit and Jesus in this sacred season of preparation for Easter.

I bless you ….(your own name)…. with living out a lifestyle of integrity as your internal beliefs match your external behaviour and actions. I bless you as you walk out your journey, your individual path that you are called to walk and where you intersect with others along this path. I bless you with beautifully touching everyone you relate to and leaving behind you a refreshing fragrance of Christ’s presence. I bless you as you lay down your life for Christ.

I bless you ….(your own name)…. with a gift of hospitality, generosity and acceptance of all and to all. I bless you as you give generously and extravagantly to God. I bless you with a deep connection with Jesus. I bless you as you share your life with others, with deep and intimate connections emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically. I bless you with laughing and crying and feeling the full range of emotions.

I bless you ….(your own name)…. as you wait on Jesus and as you wait for Jesus. I bless you in the waiting time. I bless you as you try with all your might and realise that it isn’t enough. I bless you in being you, in being all you were created to be.

I bless you ….(your own name)…. when you go through betrayal and experience brokenness. I bless you when the outcome looks less than favourable that you will be able to see from heaven’s perspective. I bless you when your dreams appear to die and have no apparent future, when hope is lost, that you will get a glimmer of heaven’s view and experience hope restored and justice in the midst of injustice. I bless you as you resist peer pressure. I bless you as you choose joy over despair.

I bless you ….(your own name)…. as you deal with faith and doubt and questions and the ensuing struggle, that you feel a peace in the struggle and a willingness to be totally honest and open with the Father, Son and Comforter about your thoughts and feelings. I bless you as you journey through pain and doubt and things that appear not as they should and the ensuring heartache. I bless you with peace and comfort at this time and of experiencing true comfort through the Holy Spirit.

I bless you ….(your own name)…. as you wait in the period of the unknown, that you will experience the Father’s love afresh. I bless you with experiencing peace in the chaos of life, a moment of ‘all is well with my soul’. I bless you with ‘hanging in there’ when the going gets tough. I bless you with courage as you walk the narrow path. I bless you with being able to forgive when all is screaming out no. I bless you with experiencing the light that comes after the darkness.

I bless you ….(your own name)…. with New Life, the promise of something better. I bless you with feeling and knowing that God is romancing you and pursuing you with a relentless love.

I bless you ….(your own name)…. as you rediscover life, joy, colour and your hope being restored. I bless you in having many new beginnings, of experiencing promises fulfilled. I bless you in this new season of grace, joy and thanksgiving. I bless you as you enjoy the banquet of faith, and experience the promise that everyone who comes to the Father will not hunger or thirst.

I bless you ….(your own name)…. as you experience the resurrection power of Jesus and the impact of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and His willingness to go to the cross for you is fully realised in your life. I bless you as you live a life full of intimacy with the Holy Spirit. I bless you with living a life of pointing others to Jesus Christ.

I bless you ….(your own name)…. with spiritual eyes and spiritual ears to see and hear whom you can encourage in this season and whom to release blessings to. In Jesus’ name, Amen

 

If you have found this helpful, please take a moment to consider whom you can either contact and pray this blessing over or to email a copy of this to for their benefit and also encourage them to subscribe to my blog. Thank you.

 

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: As a family, practice blessing each other. Take time after a meal to start with the adults saying a blessing over each other and over each individual child. Then ask each child to bless each other and you. Remember it can be very simple and short eg I bless you Sarah with being kind and having great friends.

2. Group Activation: Get into pairs. Spend a few minutes asking God to reveal which aspects of your partner’s life to bless and how. Then take it in turns to call your partner’s spirit to attention and bless them. When you have both blessed each other, share with your partner how it felt for you.

3. Beginner Activation: Practice calling your spirit to attention and blessing yourself. Ask God to reveal to you that which is hidden that would be great to be brought into the open and blessed eg unmet desires and dreams etc.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to reveal to you someone who needs encouragement and how. Contact that person and pray a blessing over them.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him what He would have you bless your country with and how. Then do it.

What is in your hand?

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Last Saturday morning I was sitting at the table eating my breakfast and writing a list of everything I could be doing in the 4 hours each week I am up the bush whilst my children learn to sail and take people with disabilities out sailing with an organisation called ‘Sailability’. In my other blog, www.raisingworldchangers.com.au I have blogged about my sudden decision to allow my children to do this activity but how it is a huge ‘inconvenience’ for me. Thus, I was sitting compiling a list of activities each week that I could do whilst waiting there so that I wasn’t wasting time.

Suddenly I sensed God say to me ‘What’s in your hand?’ I stopped and just waited. Immediately a picture from the previous Friday came to me. I had sat at the only picnic table there and when the three mini bus loads of people with disabilities came, they piled out and came to sit around the table to eat their lunch. For two hours, these people with disabilities had tried to communicate with me. Their carers had also shared some pretty deep stuff with me as I had sat there and listened.

As I sat at my breakfast table writing this list of activities so as not to waste my time the following Friday, I was overwhelmed with the goodness of God and what was in my hand – that of an amazing opportunity to be Jesus to these folk. I had an incredible opportunity to listen to these folk, form relationships with them, encourage and bless them, prophecy over them and pray for them. I could silently change the atmosphere and create a peaceful atmosphere amongst the chaos. This suddenly shifted my whole focus. God had a reason for me to be there.

What is in your hand? What is right in front of you that you have never noticed or considered before? What is God trying to capture your attention with and for? What is happening around you that God is doing? I encourage you to spend a few moments just asking God to reveal what is in your hand, right in front of you that God would love you to partner with him for.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Ask your children to pray with you to sense which group they are involved with in an activity (eg swimming, playgroup, football etc) that God wants to highlight. Now ask God to show and tell you all something to encourage the leader of this group with. Translate that on to paper by drawing, writing etc. At the next activity session for that group, pass the paper on to the leader to encourage them.

2. Group Activation: As a group, ask God to reveal to you all someone who is not in your group but who helps your group. Decide on one person. Then as a group, compile a written prophecy for this person. Work together to see what carries the most ‘weight’ ie that which most people find accurate and true and feels deep and there is a lot of agreement on. Include the ‘weighty’ words in the prophecy. Write it down and then pass on to the person.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to show you someone in your life who always seem to be there for you but whom you may overlook or may not often express your appreciation to. Spend time with God asking Him to show or tell you something encouraging and comforting for that person. Communicate that to the person either by telling them or through a letter or email.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight a person in your life whom you have never really noticed or spent much time with before. Ask God to show or tell you something about that person. Then ask God to show you a gift you could buy for them that demonstrates and communicates what He has shown or told you. Give that gift to the person.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight a leader in your church who is not upfront and often not seen. Spend time hearing & seeing from God what His heart is for this person. Write it down or paint/draw it and give it to them.

2018 New Year’s Spiritual Resolutions

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Around the start of the Year, most people tend to set goals or New Year’s Resolutions for themselves for the year. But by this time near the end of January, we tend to feel we have failed as most of those goals & resolutions are long forgotten, yet alone unmet and not even begun to be worked on.

I wondered if you had set any goals or resolutions for this year? My goals all need me to develop in courage for them to be achieved. Plus, several of them really need God to come through in partnership with me. Did you set any spiritual goals?

I have made a list of areas in the supernatural and normal spiritual life that I want to grow in this year and wondered if perhaps you would too. We can have too many goals that spread us too thin. Instead, what I have done is written these areas in my diary and on a regular basis, I will glance through them and see how I am going in each area. Some of the areas are completely out of my control eg “Raising the Dead”. I am not purporting to raise at least one person from the dead each month. In fact, there may not even be a dead person I come across all year, especially now that I am no longer nursing in a Coronary Care Unit. But I have listed it so that it is fresh in my memory and if I even get a ‘sniff’ of someone dying that I can ask if I can pray for them to be resurrected back to this life, I will. I am also researching praying for the dead and talking about it with my family (hubby, daughter 14 and son 12 years old) so that we are better prepared for when we are asked to pray for someone who has died. In a future blog post I will share with you about the time when my kids were younger (daughter 9, son 6) when we had the opportunity to go to the City Morgue and pray for a lady who had died to come back to life on earth.

I am a member of our church’s Healing Rooms and on the Board so I regularly get opportunities to pray for healing for people. I see a lot of emotional healing and some physical healing. As a team we have had several people healed totally of cancer. I believe God is asking me to look at several physical conditions that I see a lot and become ‘proficient’ in releasing healing over them. A key to setting this was to look at where my heart lies in where I would love to see healing but also the conditions that people most often ask me to pray for them to be healed of. Am I being faithful in praying for those conditions and seeing them 100% healed?

In the area of use of tongues, I have already seen a huge improvement in worshipping and adoring God on a daily basis through praying in tongues for a significant time each day. I encourage you to give it a go and realise the difference.

Have a look through the areas and see if you would like to set any goals and resolutions for this year from that list. Pray about which areas you want to be stretched in and grow in. At various times throughout the year, I will be addressing these various topics.

I have set myself the acronym CATS to help me in setting goals under each area. I want my goals to require courage and be transformational. I need them to be achievable and measurable. I also need God to meet me in them so there is a degree of the supernatural. In fact, they can only be ‘achieved’ in partnership with God.

  • C – Courageous
  • A – Achievable & Measureable
  • T – Transformational
  • S – Supernatural

The areas I have listed that I want to grow in are:

  • Intimacy with God – spending specific amount of time daily enjoying being in God’s presence & worshiping. Being aware of feeling/living in a state of peace and inner joy constantly.
  • Healing – 90% healing in 3 areas
  • Miracles – seeing one physical example of provision at least weekly
  • Prophetic – precision accuracy
  • Evangelism – using the prophetic to open conversation
  • Raising the Dead – prepared & courageous in asking relatives of dead people if I can pray for their relative to be resurrected
  • Words of knowledge – names and conditions when healing is required
  • Faith – believing for more of the impossible, especially in area of finances & regularly sharing testimonies
  • Distinguishing between spirits – educate myself on this and accurately identify demons
  • Use of Tongues – spending specific amount time each day praying in tongues
  • Weather changes – witnessing further weather changes after praying
  • Love – accept and embrace all in my presence, especially my children’s friends
  • Character/integrity/holiness – flee from sin

I would love to hear which spiritual areas you are working on in your life. Please feel free to comment below.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Cover the bottom of a shallow cake tin with flour. Give the cake tin to the first person and ask them to write one word (or draw a simple picture) in the flour for the person on their left. Share it with that person. Gently shake the cake tin to flatten out the flour. The person on the left, then repeats the process with the person on their left.

2. Group Activation: As a group, look at the snack that you are going to share as a group and ask God to highlight one aspect or piece of food from it for someone in your group. Ask God to expand that for a prophetic word for them about it. Share the prophetic word with them. If your group doesn’t share supper or a snack together, buy a variety of lollies and as a group look at the lollies.

3. Beginner Activation: Go outside and find a flower or tree that has a fragrance. Spend some time sniffing the aroma and relating it to an aspect of God. Then ask God to highlight a person and how that person relates to the aroma. Share it with that person in an appropriate manner.

4. Intermediate Activation: Go to a bookcase and open a book that has pictures in it. Ask God to reveal to you a prophetic word from the picture on the page you opened to. If the prophetic word is for someone else, release that prophetic word to them as God shows you how to.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight someone to you who has an amazing gift of servant hood. Press into God for an encouraging and edifying prophetic word for this person and also ask God how to deliver that prophetic word to them.