Category Archives: Prophetic teaching

Helping my Kids hear from God part 4

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Four years ago, our 11 year old daughter was invited to have afternoon tea with the then Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott. One of our first reactions as a family, after agreeing that we would do everything possible for her to attend, was to agree to draw (for the children) and write (for hubby and I) a prophetic word each for him and we would hand it to him when we saw him.  It was just natural to think that way, almost ‘second nature’.

(Our children find it easier to express what they are hearing / seeing from God for a person by drawing a picture for them and writing a sentence or two of explanation.)

Several weeks later, I was amazed at the number of Christians who had commented to me that they would never have thought to write or draw a prophetic word / picture for him. This shocked me. Why wouldn’t you take the opportunity in person to do that. We didn’t include any Christian language. We were encouraging and strengthening in what we wrote and drew. We purely asked God, “how do you see him and what would you like to say to him?” and then we listened for God’s reply.

Reflecting on this later, I realised that several years earlier, we would never have thought to do it either. The journey we have been on over these last eight years has prepared us for this. We have specifically tried to take every opportunity that we can to write, draw, and speak prophetic words over people. We have incorporated it into our daily lives so that it is part of us. We have grown considerably in our gifting because we have practiced. I encourage you to practice and take every opportunity you can.

We have stuck to the basics of it being encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting. We have tried not to use Christian language but begin by saying, “I sense that…” and not using “God says…”. We have never spoken or drawn negative things. If we ever did get anything negative, we would change it to the opposite and speak the positive, thereby giving life to what we said and to the other person.

This blog post is fourth in a series of four blog posts that are about teaching our kids to hear from God and prophesy. You can read the other blog posts here: Beginning to hear from God for yourself. Starting to hear from God for Others. Helping our Kids grow in hearing from God.

 

Basically, there are four steps to take initially to grow yourself and your children in the prophetic.

 

First: Practice, practice, practice.

The more you practice something, the better you get at doing that activity.

I love prophetic activations for this reason. Prophetic activations are basically some exercises that you can do to help you practice hearing God’s voice and sensing what is on His heart for a particular situation or person.

At the end of each of my blogs on this website, “Unlocking the Gold”, I always compose five prophetic activations. They include one aimed specifically at families or groups of children, another one for groups, beginners, someone a bit further down the track and another for people who consider themselves quite advanced and have been operating in the prophetic for a while. You are most welcome to do the whole five each week.

The individual activations will take about five to ten minutes to do. Some may take a bit longer eg twenty minutes. I have found with my children that they hear God immediately and they are finished within a couple of minutes whilst I am usually still trying to work out what God is saying.

I encourage you this week to look for ways to practice. Look for the hidden ‘gold’ inside a certain person and try to bring it to the surface by asking God to show you how He views them and what they need encouragement in. Then speak it kindly and gently to them in an encouraging and uplifting way.

Also, realise what you are modelling to your children. Have fun. Go for it. Make it a part of your lifestyle. Enjoy!!

 

Second: Develop intimacy with Father God.

I have found that a hugely significant way to grow in the prophetic is to get closer to God. To become more intimate with Father God, Holy Spirit and Jesus. The more intimate we become with all three, the more we recognise the subtleties of what they say and do and who they are.

This is also true with your kids and God. Create opportunities to pour into their lives for them to be intimate with Father God, Holy Spirit and Jesus. It all starts with listening to God and knowing His voice and being able to recognise it immediately. Make it fun. As you spend time with them during their bedtime ritual, practice listening to God. Ask them – “what do you think God is saying to you about ….(what happened today)..?” or “What would God like you to know as you as you are going to sleep?”

God is creative and He loves us being creative with Him. Experiment with how you and your children relate with God. Change the place eg go for a walk on the beach during a storm, take a hike, sit in a coffee shop, rest in a quiet place. Change the how eg put on quiet music and meditate on God’s goodness, put on fast, loud music and dance with God, read the Bible, fast, be silent, go out into nature and touch that which the creator has created, try creating a piece of art, etc

Our church has recently had a period of fasting for 3 weeks. It was interesting to hear some of the different ways that the teenagers fasted. Some fasted food or sugar, others social media or television etc. One girl fasted make-up as she felt God wanted to take her on a journey of looking at her self image and who she really was. Fasting creates an edge and acuity to hearing God clearly.

We become what we behold. Thus, we need to be careful at what we are looking at. What are we listening to and watching on the television or our social media? What voices are your children exposed to? What books are your children reading? Are you allowing violence, adultery, swearing into your lounge room by what you see and hear on television? Who do we surround ourselves with that are impacting on our soul and spirit? What are we feeding our spirit, soul and body? If we are exposed to the glory of God, we will be transformed. 2 Corinthians 3:18 – “And we, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

 

Third: Look at your true identity.

I encourage you and your family to go on a journey of discovery with God and yourself. Look at who God says you are. Discover your true identity. Find out how you are known in Heaven.

Explore the good, the bad and the ugly about yourself. God is a safe person and place. Be truly vulnerable with God and ask Him to reveal to you those areas you need to grow in eg any fears, shame, guilt etc. Spend time with God immersing yourself in being completely vulnerable with him and discovering what He thinks of you.

Bless your children’s spirit with knowing who God sees them as and who He created them to be. Regularly pray a blessing over your children in regard to how God sees them and who they really are.

As you uncover your true identity and live that out in its purest form, the more likely you are to hear God and operate in an intimate manner with God. Thus, your prophetic skills of hearing and seeing from God will grow and you will want to release what God is sharing with you to others.

 

Fourth: Take responsibility for your own growth.

You are responsible for your own growth. Do not expect anyone else to take this responsibility from you. Read books about the prophetic, listen to podcasts, find prophetic people and ask them to mentor you.

Chat about the prophetic when you are in the car with your kids and practice. Play a game eg “Let’s ask God to show us each which animal best represents dad and what it is about that animal and its characteristics.” Or “See that building over there. Let’s ask God what He wants to say to the owners.” Or “Let’s all ask God how much money we should give to ….?”

Keep a journal as a family outlining the promptings you feel from God and what you have done as a result and the outcome (if it was apparent). Regularly reflect and read through the journal. Even keep a jar on your dining room table and coloured paper and pens nearby. Write down times you have given prophetic words to people or drawn pictures for people and it has been appreciated. Place these slips of paper in the jar and read them out on New Year’s Eve etc.

Have family devotions about prophetic people from the Bible and how God communicated with them. Regularly talk about your dreams from overnight and what they mean.

Take every opportunity you can. Practice drawing prophetic pictures for the café owner or the post man or the teacher. At birthday parties, write a card for every person asking God what He wants you and your children to write or draw on it. Do this with every birthday card you send.

Ask friends if you can ‘practice’ on them.

Have fun on this journey as a family and be able to spur each other on in your prophetic growth. When you are intentional about growing in the prophetic, you will see a huge improvement in your ability to give prophetic words and the depth of those words.

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: Walk into your garage or a storage room and ask God to highlight an object to each person. Ask God why He highlighted that object and who He wants you to tell about it and how it relates to them.

2. Group Activation: Ask everyone to get an object out of their bag or pocket or off themselves and place in a bag in the middle of the room. If it is a large group, you may want to split into several smaller groups to save time. Ask each person one at a time to put their hand in the bag and select an object without looking in the bag. Ask them to prophesy over the owner of that object and then, when they have finished prophesying, ask who the object belongs to and return it to them. Encourage people to respond with brief feedback on the relevance and suitability of the prophecy.

3. Beginner Activation: Research different names for God in the Bible and ask God to highlight one for you to reflect on more. Spend time with God, reflecting on that characteristic of Him. Ask Him to show that side of His character to you and how He already operates in that way in your life. Write a prophetic word to a friend incorporating that part of God’s character within the prophetic word.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight a community group to you and to give you His insights for that group. Carefully and sensitively write a letter to the group, encouraging them in what God has shown you without actually mentioning God.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to show you His plan for Antarctica and what the current state of play is there. Spend time with God crafting a prophetic declaration that you can decree over Antarctica and its future.

Helping my kids hear from God part 3

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It is so exciting, as a child, to hear your Father say “I love you”, “You are beautiful”. Imagine how exciting it is for people to hear their Father God say, “I love you”, “I care enough about you and know you so intimately that I have something here that is just what you need to hear.” That is basically what happens when we give people prophetic words.

I love being on the prophetic team at church and people come forward for a prophetic word. They get out their phones to record the word and myself or my partner begin to prophesy and tell them what we sense God is saying through us to them. Most times, we don’t get very far in before they start to cry. You see tears form in their eyes and they start to get emotional as what we are saying touches their core. God knows exactly what this person needed to hear and our job was to hear from God and then communicate it to that person.

Other times I have written names on sheets of paper of people whom we will be ministering to in a few days time. I have then seen my kids draw pictures on those sheets of paper at home. When we arrive at the ministry session, my kids give those sheets of paper to the people and find that that is exactly what the person needed.

Last year I was at a trivia night and three people came up to me. I remembered these three different folk from an AA type meeting we had been invited to six years ago. Hubby and I gave prophetic words to each participant and my kids had drawn pictures for each person. Each of these three people commented how the pictures my kids had given them were still on their fridge and still meant so much to them as they were so accurate.

You and your kids can do this as well.

1 Corinthians 14:1 “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.” You can desire and develop the ability to hear God’s voice. Practice is crucial to develop skills in just about anything and the same is true with prophecy and hearing God’s voice. The more you practice something, the better you get at doing that activity.

There are numerous ways you can practice. Turn it into a game. On my website, I have basic kids games that we have adapted to be prophetic practicing games. Also look at part 1 and part 2 of this series of “Helping my kids to hear from God” for further hints on how to begin, firstly with hearing God for yourself and then for others.

My kids have always preferred to draw pictures for people (even though their drawings are quite basic) and I will then ask them what it is they have drawn and write what they say along the top, together with the person’s name it is for plus the date. We have taken every opportunity we could to develop this, drawing prophetic pictures for all the students and teachers in a school in Nepal, other times for every participant at a ministry workshop for over 80 people.

I believe the key is to practice and keep listening to what God is saying or showing. I often use the phrase “what is God showing, telling or giving you for that person?”.

I love prophetic activations for this reason. Prophetic activations are basically some exercises that you can do to help you practice hearing God’s voice and sensing what is on His heart for a particular situation or person.

At the end of each of my blogs on this website, “Unlocking the Gold”, I always compose five prophetic activations. They include one aimed specifically at families or groups of children, another one for groups, beginners, someone a bit further down the track and another for people who consider themselves quite advanced and have been operating in the prophetic for a while. You are most welcome to do the whole five each week.

The individual activations will take about five to ten minutes to do. Some may take a bit longer eg twenty minutes. I have found with my children that they hear God immediately and they are finished within five minutes whilst I am usually still trying to work out what God is saying.

My first year at operating in the prophetic, I used to write 3-5 birthday cards per week. At that time, I was involved in a weekly meal to help people who were struggling with life issues, usually suffering from mental illness as well, and I would write encouragement cards and birthday cards for these folk, as well as cards for friends and family. On the left hand side of the card, I would ask God what to write, listen to what I felt Him saying and then write it down. At the time, I was busy with young kids and would set aside the 30 minutes during the kids swimming lesson to do this, putting myself under pressure to finish them in this time.

Every time I went to the shops or had a coffee at a coffee shop, I would make a concerted effort to give the cashier or waitress a prophetic encouraging word. I would usually begin by saying, “I notice that you are (and go on to highlight an encouraging character issue)..” It was during this time that I noticed my gifting developing so much. I believe that it was due to my practicing and developing it.

I encourage you this week to look for ways to practice for both you and your children. Look for the hidden ‘gold’ inside a certain person and try to bring it to the surface by asking God to show you how He views them and what they need encouragement in. Then speak it kindly and gently to them in an encouraging and uplifting way. Remember to only speak words that are encouraging, uplifting and comforting, not negative at all. Use plain, everyday English. A great way to start the sentence is to say, “I sense…” or “I have a feeling that….” or “You are a … person who…..” or “I notice that ….”

  • Whilst in line at the supermarket, ask God to give you a few words to say to the cashier that will encourage and speak into their situation.
  • Ask God for people’s names and then write an encouragement card/email to them.
  • Leave a card with a prophetic word on it for the postman.
  • Drop an encouraging prophetic letter into your neighbour’s letterbox.
  • Every phone conversation you have this week, determine to pause and ask God what He wants you to release to the caller.
  • Find creative ways of writing and drawing prophetic words for your family / housemates. Leave them where they can discover them and be encouraged.
  • Realise that every time you come across someone who annoys you, it is an opportunity for you to discover the hidden ‘gold’ in that person and reveal it to them.

I have found that kids respond better and join in when they see you modelling it.

Go for it. Make it a part of your lifestyle. Enjoy!!

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: Ask each person to think of an elderly person they know. Ask God what He wants to show, tell or give them to draw and write to that person. Then spend some time drawing a picture for that person that communicates what they felt God saying, showing or giving them for that person. Then find a way this week to deliver it to that person.

2. Group Activation: Ask people to take off their shoes at the door. Gather one of each shoe and go around the room, passing a shoe to a person who has to prophesy over the shoe owner. Once they have prophesied, the owner of the shoe can identify themself. Then pass a shoe to the next person and repeat the process.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God, giving Him your heaviest problem. Ask Him to show you what He wants to give you in return.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight to you someone whose blog or emails you receive. Spend time with God, crafting a prophetic word to send back to them to encourage them.

5. Advanced Activation: Abortion (especially full term) is a topic that is being debated in numerous countries at the moment. Ask God to show you His heart in relation to this and how you can communicate that most effectively and to whom in relation to the policy and decision makers responsible in your country. Prophesy into the situation for babies to be recognised as humans from conception.

Helping my Children to hear from God part 2

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In December last year, I blogged on part 1 of helping your child to hear from God. In fact, it is not just relevant to children but to adults as well. In the first blog, I looked at hearing God for yourself and learning to recognise what God’s voice is like.

Today – I would like to look at hearing God for someone else.

I find it helpful when we are learning things to practice them first. A great place to practice hearing God’s voice for others is in your own family. An ideal time is when you are having devotions or just after your evening meal when everyone is still seated at the table.

It tends to be easier to hear God’s voice to begin with if you have a starting place. With kids especially, a visual starting point is ideal. I like to use cards with animals on them or a number of matchbox cars etc. Objects that will capture their imagination. It doesn’t really matter what the objects are, just a variety. It could be a fruit platter.

Begin by recapping on what God’s voice sounds like. Ask your kids what God’s voice would sound like (peaceful, quiet, only good etc) and what it wouldn’t sound like (eg angry, fearful, pushy, demanding, etc). Also share how God sometimes shows or tells or we sense something from God ie we may hear, see or feel what God is saying or showing us.

Then ask them to each look at the objects in the centre of the table (eg fruit platter, matchbox cars, animal cards) and ask God which object best represents the person sitting on their left. Remind them to go with the first object that ‘pops’ into their mind or captures their attention the most. When they have that object, then ask God why that object best represents the person on their left.

When they have all received an answer, take it in turns to go around the table and share what object they felt God show, tell or impress on them about the person on their left and why.

Practice this using different objects several different times to get into the flow of hearing or seeing or sensing from God.

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: Make a fruit platter and all gather around. Ask everyone to stop for a moment and ask God which fruit best represents the person on their right. Then ask God why He says that that fruit best represents them. Then take turns sharing.

2. Group Activation: Prepare cut out fruit shapes with positive words on them eg fruit of the spirit, grace, joy, peace, thankfulness, contentment, confidence, self acceptance etc. Ask people to identify which one they need to grow in most. Spend some time alone with God chatting about this. Then pair up and select a ‘fruit’ for your partner. Prophecy over your partner about the growth of that ‘fruit’ in their life this year.

3. Beginner Activation: Find a blank card that you can write and/or draw in. Think about a significant event that is occurring to you this year eg birthday, wedding, graduation, new job, birth of a baby etc. Ask God to show you His heart for you for that special time. Write and /or draw what you sense God saying or showing you on the card.

4. Intermediate Activation: Spend some time with God going through your diary from the last month and for the coming month. Review how you have spent your time and how you are planning to spend your time this coming month. Wait on God and ask God for His input. If you have commenced something new this year, ask God what He would like you to cease to allow space, time, energy and thought space for this new activity. Ask God to show you what you are currently ‘doing’ that is of eternal significance. Spend time just being with God and hearing His perspective on your calendar and they way that you spend your time.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him about His heart in regards to your country’s abortion policy. Ask God what part you are to play, pray and prophecy – where, when and to whom.

Helping my Children to Hear from God – part 1

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Exasperated, I told my daughter rather harshly that God didn’t talk like that. We had had our morning devotion, we had then put on a Christian song to listen to quietly in the background. My kids had grabbed their journals and blank paper and pencils & crayons. I had then asked them to ask God what He wanted to say to them today. My daughter immediately said that God had told her that He was going to give her an apple device. This was the third day in a row that God had apparently told my daughter that. I retorted by saying, “That’s because you want an iPad or iMac. God doesn’t work like that.”

I now look back on that interaction at least five years ago and I am embarrassed. Embarrassed at my callousness and impatience and unkindness towards my daughter. Embarrassed by how I misrepresented God. Embarrassed by putting my frustrations over my relationship with her. Embarrassed that my daughter had a lot greater clarity of how God works than me. (For the record, within a few months God did miraculously give her the money for an iMac.)

I often get asked by parents to share with them how I taught my children to be prophetic. Yes, my children are prophetic but I don’t think I can take all the credit for ‘teaching’ them.

In fact, I really learnt heaps by helping out in their Sunday School class. (Parents – please, I implore you – help out regularly in their class and pick up strategies and tips for use at home.) I was sitting at a table with 4 & 5 year olds. My 5 year old son next to me. The children were all lined up opposite each other with a sheet of paper in front of them and crayons on the table. They were then simply asked to draw a picture from God for the child opposite them. Us adults then asked the children what they had drawn and wrote that on the sheet of paper. The children then gave the paper to the children opposite them and explained what they had drawn.

 

I was gobsmacked. Basically this was all there was to prophecy with children.

 

I went home and that week, I started to incorporate this every few days into our devotions.

I find that children hear, sense and see from God immediately. Children don’t seem to have the same ‘hang ups’ as adults do about what God would and wouldn’t do and say, so they find it easier to trust God. They just seem to automatically accept that the first thought through their mind is from God. They asked God and He answered them. Perhaps it is also that they don’t have all the years of experience of ‘not hearing from God’ or perhaps more correctly – not recognising that what we were hearing and sensing was actually from God.

So, when I start with people wanting to teach their children how to hear from God, I start with having them explain briefly the character of God to their children in a really basic manner of a couple of sentences. Get your children to brainstorm what God would sound like. He is a good God so He is not going to say anything mean. God is going to be encouraging, positive, kind.

Second step is to hear from God for yourself and feel God’s thoughts towards you (or your children to hear and sense from God for themselves). Once you can recognise God’s voice for yourself, or your children can recognise God’s voice for themselves, it is pretty straight forward from then on.

I have listed below two activations or practical exercises that you can do yourself or with your children to help you begin to hear, feel, sense or see what God is saying to you or your children. It can be helpful to provide a quiet place where you can all rest or lie down. It is also helpful to have sheets of paper and pencils /crayons /textas that people can use to draw what they feel God saying or showing to them.

First Activation:

  1. Find a quiet place to lie down and close your eyes.
  2. Ask God, “If you could play any game with me right now, what would it be?”
  3. Capture the first thought that goes through your mind, or the first thing you feel.
  4. If you are having trouble getting something, ask God to give you a feeling or to bring to mind your favourite game. Use that game in your imagination.
  5. Then ask God a question based on that, for example
    1. “God, why did you pick that game?”
    2. “What is special about that game?”
    3. “What do you want to teach me or show me through that game?”
  6. Draw a picture of what you say or felt or heard.
  7. Share with someone, your parent etc.

Second Activation:

  1. Ask God if He could have a special time with you anywhere in the world right now, where would He take you and why?
  2. Capture that first thought that goes through your mind, or the first thing you feel.
  3. Ask God some more questions about that place. Eg
    1. “God, why did you pick that place?”
    2. “What’s special about that place?”
    3. “God, what do you want to say to me here in this place you’ve chosen for me?”
  4. Draw a picture of what you felt, saw or heard.
  5. Share with someone, your parent etc.

Chat with your children about the fact that God loves chatting with us. He wants us to have a two way conversation with Him. Thus, He loves it when we ask Him questions and clarify what He said etc.

Next week’s blog post will be part 2 on helping your children hear from God for other people.

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: Have everyone close their eyes and ask God what supernatural clothes God wants to give to them to be dressed in. Share what you heard, saw or felt.

2. Group Activation: Play prophetic duck, duck, goose. Have everyone sit in a circle and ask them all to close their eyes. Walk around behind people and touch one person on their head or shoulder. Then ask everyone to open their eyes. Ask them to hear from God and prophesy over the person you touched (whom only you and that person know who it is). After a certain amount of prophetic words, ask the ‘receiver of the prophetic words’ to identify themself and share how the words resonated with them. Repeat with another person being the receiver.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God asking Him where in the universe He would like to take you and why. Ask Him questions about what you would do there together, why that place is special etc.

4. Intermediate Activation: Write a prophetic word for your garbage collector this week. Buy a small present that relates prophetically to this and give them both to your garbage collector when he next collects your rubbish.

5. Advanced Activation: Write a prophetic word for the leader of your country. Remember to exude grace and love and kingdom values. Find a way of emailing or posting this to Him/Her.

Comparison and Prophecy

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Chatting with a close friend last night, I had a sudden ah-ha moment. I suddenly realised that one of the biggest reasons that people don’t like a prophetic word they have received, and also then don’t go on to steward that prophetic word well, is that they compare their prophetic word to what another person has received. They believe that the other person’s prophetic word is better than theirs and they want that one.

 

                   Have you ever compared your prophetic word to someone else’s?

 

One of the dangers of someone giving prophetic words in public to people is that it sets us for comparison. Everyone can hear what everyone receives.

You hear a great word for someone else and you go “I desperately wish that was for me. I want to be that person. I long for that outcome in my life.”

You hear the word for you and you are so busy wanting something else that you don’t see the gold in the prophetic word for you.

In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is talking to people about their marriages and what to do if a non Christian spouse leaves etc. He then says in verse 17 “And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life.”

Don’t look around at what prophetic word others are receiving. Focus on yourself and God.

The definition of comparison is to look at the similarities and differences between two things, in this case between what has been prophesied over you and what has been prophesied over others.

The definition of envy is the feeling of discontentment or resentment of another person’s position, possessions, qualities or luck.

Comparison is the beginning of envy. Envy causes strife. Stay away from comparison!!

Last week I shared about what to do when you feel like you have received a bad prophetic word. https://www.unlockingthegold.com/what-to-do-with-a-bad-prophetic-word/ This is a great blog post to review for practical steps on what constitutes a bad prophetic word and what to do about it.

When we are tempted to compare our prophetic word with someone else’s, or we finding ourselves feeling envious of their prophetic word, the following are some steps to take.

Our role as children of God is:

  1. Focus on God. Who God is.
  2. Get a grip on who God says you are. God has a far larger view of you and your abilities and your future than you have.
  3. Rejoice with others. Celebrate the positives that others have prophesied about them.
  4. Do not begin to compare. If you have any feelings of envy, go to God and deal with your feelings with God. Stop the negative feelings of comparison quickly. Keep ‘clean’ before God and before others. One of the ways that I know if I have a great heart attitude towards someone else is to genuinely bless the other person and what has been prophesied over them.
  5. Chase after God. You will not go without. Grab hold of what He says about you and work on that in your life.

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: Have paper, crayons, and stickers of all sorts of clothes set up on a table. You may also like to have a whole heap of dress up clothes as well that children can select from. Pair children up and ask then to ask God how He sees their partner dressed ie what God sees them dressed as. Then ask the children to either draw that on the paper or select stickers to stick on the paper that represent what they felt/saw/heard or to choose from the dress up clothes. Ask the children to share with each other how God sees them dressed.

2. Group Activation: Choose two people to stand facing each other. Ask everyone else to stand behind these two people, half the group behind each of the front people. Take it in turns giving prophetic words. The first person gives a prophetic word to the person facing them and then they go to the back of the line behind them. The person who just received a prophetic word prophesies over the person in front of them. As soon as they have delivered the prophetic word, they go to the end of the line behind them. Continue on until everyone has received a prophetic word and has also given a prophetic word. Have a time of people sharing the highlights that they heard for other people and for themselves. Celebrate the accuracies that were heard.

3. Beginner Activation: Choose a chapter of the Bible to read. Highlight for yourself any promises or ‘gold’ that you get out of that chapter. Then spend time with God writing a prophetic word for a friend from that chapter.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to remind you of someone whom you find it hard to bless or celebrate their prophetic words or someone whom you find its hard to love. Spend time with God getting a glimpse of how He sees that person. Write a prophetic word for that person and deliver it to them this week.

5. Advanced Activation: Awakening Australia is occurring in Melbourne this next week. Spend time with God crafting a prophetic word for the city of Melbourne. Write it out. Then declare it out over Melbourne.

What to do with a ‘bad’ prophetic word

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Recently I was with some teenagers and we were going through what to do with your prophetic word. One of them expressed the fact that he didn’t like his prophetic word. Later, when I chatted one on one with this young person, he confided that he didn’t like it because it hadn’t said anything at all about what he wanted his future to be like ie a sports star. Thus, he didn’t like the prophetic word at all.

It really depends on why we think it is a bad prophetic word.

  • Is it because we didn’t like it?
  • Is it because we were wanting something else?
  • Is it because the ‘spirit’ of it was wrong?
  • Is it because it came completely out of left field and nothing that I had ever thought of before?
  • Is it because it brought confusion, fear, doubt, anger, jealousy?
  • Is it because it doesn’t make sense?

Prophecy can come from 3 sources:

  • Spirit of God (2 Peter 1:21) “For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
  • Human Spirit (Jeremiah 23:16-21)“This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes.
    They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord……But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word?……I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.
  • Demonic spirit (Jeremiah 23:13) “Among the prophets of Samaria, I saw this repulsive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.”

Thus, not all prophesy comes from God. Most times you will find it does, but sometimes the person giving the prophetic word can prophesy out of their own spirit.

What is our responsibility when receiving a prophetic word?

If we look to the Bible, we find that it encourages us to ‘test’ all Prophetic Words:

  • “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1).
  • “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophesies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good.” (I Thessalonians 5:19-21)

If you get a bad word, don’t come into agreement with it publicly or privately. Break every word that is not coming from the heart of God and speak what you know to be His will over yourself.

These Scriptures warn us to test every prophetic word. Don’t gullibly take it all to heart.

  • Search God for yourself.
  • Test the prophecy, not the prophet.
  • If you don’t understand or like each part of the prophetic word, don’t immediately reject it as false. It may be that it is referring to something that is yet to come about in your life. Put it ‘on the shelf’ for prayerful consideration at a later time.

Living with imperfection:

There are no perfect prophets. There are very few perfect prophecies. Even experienced prophets get it wrong sometimes. A number of prophecies from God will be slightly contaminated by something the prophet has added from his own heart. This is normal even for experienced prophets, because all prophets are human.

I can remember a friend being prophesied over by a world class prophet. This prophet stated publicly that she would have a certain number of children and the first would be a boy. When this friend finally became pregnant, we bought her a blue item to congratulate her. I was 100% certain that she was having a boy as this prophet was meant to be so accurate. My friend delivered a girl. This really challenged my thinking at the time.

The solution is not to reject all prophecy, but to test all prophecy.

What to focus on:

  • Look for the inner witness within our spirit
  • Look for the confirming points – those things that God has already been speaking to you about.
  • Look for the encouragement, the strengthening and building up, the comforting.
  • Look for the hope for something that is coming to pass in the future.
  • Begin to pray over it and work with it to see it come to fruition in your life.

What do you do with a prophetic word that doesn’t make sense?

There are choices to make when a prophetic word doesn’t make sense.

  • We can throw it out because it is in no way witnessing with our soul and spirit, and we think the person who delivered it is way off in left field.
  • We can pray into it and see if the Holy Spirit confirms the word to us.
  • We can also put it ‘up on the shelf’ and see later if the Holy Spirit brings it down or not.

A word of caution – please don’t be too rash with discarding the prophetic word. Keep doing what you are doing for that season. When and if the word is for you, God will bring it back to remembrance, confirm it in His Word, the Bible, or bring another person to prophesy a similar word to confirm it to you.

No matter what, a prophetic word should never take the place of our own personal relationship with God. Several years ago, a woman kept asking my husband for a prophetic word after church for several weeks. What she was really wanting was confirmation about a husband. Instead, my husband gave her an amazing prophetic word about her and her relationship with God. The following week when she asked again, hubby stopped and basically said, “Please go home and work on last week’s prophetic word before you ask again.”

What do you say when you receive a ‘bad’ prophetic word?

Whenever you receive a prophetic word, especially if you have any doubts about it, some good questions to ask are:

  • Did the prophetic word resonate with what God has been talking to you about lately?
  • Did it speak into a situation you are currently facing?
  • Did the prophecy encourage you?
  • Did you feel honoured and respected by the person giving the prophecy?
  • Was the language appropriate?
  • Did the tone and facial expressions match what was said?
  • Which part of the prophecy was most impacting for you?
  • Which was the least impacting for you?
  • How did you find the manner in which it was given?
  • How do you feel it could have had more impact?

If the language was off putting or the prophetic word was negative, please give feedback immediately to the person as this will help them grow in the prophetic. Please do this in a loving manner. Please also encourage them with what part of the prophetic word you felt really resonated with you and was the most impacting.

In the prophetic group I was part of, we would often practice and get feedback from each other in relation to not only what we said but also how we said it.

This is a fantastic reason that the church our family is a part of (Stairway Church) has strong prophetic guidelines in place when people give prophetic words to someone. These guidelines are to help safeguard people and reduce the risk of ‘bad’ prophesying or hurtful words being said.

Part of those guidelines include:

  1. Check your heart – be filled with God’s love for the person and prophesy out of that.
  2. Your prophetic words must encourage, build and comfort.
  3. Appropriate permission, language, tone, timing and touch. Always ask people’s permission before you give them a prophetic word and respect their right to say ‘no’.
  4. Record the prophetic word.
  5. Anyone under the age of 16 has to have a parent, guardian or appropriate adult with them when they are receiving a prophetic word.

Basically, every Christian is hopefully wanting to grow in their relationship with Jesus and in hearing from God for themselves and others. How we do this is so important.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every week I list 5 prophetic activations/exercises under children/family, group, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The purpose of these exercises is to 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 out paper and ask each person to draw a tree. Label each branch with a family member’s name or a person close to them. Have pre-cut out ‘leaves’ from green paper. Ask each person to write at least one encouraging word on a leaf for each person they have labelled on a branch. Ask them to pause for a moment and ask God to tell, give or show them that word. Glue the leaf on to the appropriate branch. Repeat for each person/branch drawn.

2. Group Activation: Break into small groups. Brainstorm negative things that could be said when prophesying or negative situations or character traits you may receive a word of knowledge about. Chat about how you would respond. Share back in the large group. Then practice with each other.

3. Beginner Activation: Look through your own prophetic words (ie words given to you) and ask God to highlight to you any misconceptions. Ask God how you are to respond. Then write a prophetic word for the person who prophesied the misconception over you.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you a teenager who is sitting exams at the moment. Write a prophetic word for this teenager and pass it on to them as soon as possible.

5. Advanced Activation:  Ask God to highlight to you someone who has made an unwise decision lately. Prophesy over them.

Finding missing children – how the prophetic can help

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Shawn Bolz has an amazing prophetic ministry. I have recently started listening to some of his podcasts where he interviews ‘famous’ prophetic people and unearths really interesting and challenging stories about these people’s prophetic abilities and their prophetic stories.

I encourage you to listen to a few of his interviews. Maybe even subscribe to his podcasts so you don’t miss any. This is a great way to also grow in your own prophetic gifting.

In this episode (number 27 from March 12, 2018 – http://exploringtheprophetic.libsyn.com/exploring-the-prophetic-with-dan-mccollam), Shawn Bolz interviews Dan McCollam.

Dan leads an amazing Prophetic “Finders” Group out of Mission Church in Vacaville, California, USA.

Dan and his group make a point to hear God about life and death situations by asking God for kidnapped, missing and trafficked people and how to locate them. They have been partnering with authorities to find these missing children and unsolved crimes.

In this episode, he shares some truly amazing stories about how God has used him and his team in Words of Knowledge to locate missing children, some that have been missing for many years. These stories are awesome! Dan also shares some cautionary words as well.

Imagine if we grew in our ability to hear God about matters of life and death like this. Imagine the huge impact on children, families, cities and nations.

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: Choose several people you know whose parents have died or are adopted or fostered. If possible, try and have a photo of each person. Ask each child to select a person and ask God to share with them how He sees that person and their situation and who they really are known as in Heaven. Ask each child to draw a picture or write it down. Then pass these pictures/words on to the people they were drawn/written about.

2. Group Activation: Prepare beforehand from an old missing person/kidnapped child case. Find some details and perhaps a photo of the missing person and some of the details once they were found. Share the photo and the initial details of the case. Break the group into smaller groups and ask them to ask God for some clues to the rescue of this person. After 15-20 minutes, bring the whole group back together and ask every group to share their thoughts. See if there are any common themes across the group. Then share the outcome of the case and the real details released in the media.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to reveal to you something about your identity which has been missing or overlooked. Spend time with God seeking more and looking to Him for the next step for this part of your identity to be truly realised within you.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you someone who is lonely and feels abandoned or is without a close family. Ask God to show you his answer and how He sees this person. Frame it in a prophetic word and tactfully deliver it to this person.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to reveal to you a missing person and some details about that. Write the details down and just observe what happens with the missing person case. Ask God to help you hone your skills in this area and review the information you thought with the information about the missing person which comes to light. Be interceding for this person to be reunited with their loved ones and for their safety.

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.

Prophesying over Kids

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Recently I was chatting with several teenagers who had received a prophetic word from a world renowned prophet. These teens didn’t like the prophetic words they received. When I asked more questions, I realised that these teens had assumed some stuff.

  • One teen felt an enormous responsibility to fulfil the career spoken about.
  • Another teen didn’t understand that some of the words spoken had multiple meanings. It was obvious to me, but not to the teen, that the meaning of several of the words were taken wrongly. This would bring a whole new meaning to the prophecy and change things hugely for this teen.
  • Another teen was passionate about a particular hobby and wanted to turn his hobby into a professional career so he was disappointed that this ‘hobby’ was not mentioned in his future.

In this blog post, I want to share some principles that we use when we prophesy to kids. By kids, I’m meaning anyone under the age of 16.

When you prophesy over anyone, especially kids, you are always encouraging and strengthening and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3). You could liken it to giving them a set of binoculars to see a bit of the way into the future in regard to whom they are becoming.

Important ‘times’/seasons to give prophetic words to kids 

  • At their birth
  • Start of school
  • Transition times eg grade 6 to year 7
  • Baptism
  • Transition to higher education or when trying to sort out subjects for future career.
  • It’s great for every child to have a prophetic word so that their parent can help steward it for them.

Main Principles for giving prophetic words to kids

  • Please keep all kids safe – emotionally, spiritually, mentally & physically.
  • Keep yourself safe and above reproach.
  • Don’t place huge a responsibility or expectations upon the child with what you say.

Practicalities

  • Language – easy language that they understand. Thus, no big words. Use everyday language. Watch your tone and facial expression eg smile. A child can presume that if you are frowning then you are angry with them or telling them off. Obviously not the intention of prophesying!
  • Parent / guardian / kids leader present for safety, accountability and ability to steward it well. Please do not prophesy over a child with no other adult present. This is unwise for yourself but can hurt a child emotionally and spiritually. Children can also take words spoken out of context and believe something quite different was said. We want to keep our children safe.
  • Focus on character and identity.
  • Don’t place huge expectations on them eg it is unwise to prophesy that they will be for example a Prime Minister of Australia one day (even if you think you clearly heard that). It is far more effective for children to say to them that they have a leadership gift that can be grown so that they can impact a large number of people and that they may find themselves in groups where they can be the leader.
  • Not long winded. Remember children have a short attention span.
  • Get down to their level physically so you are not towering over them and intimidating them.
  • Don’t touch them eg don’t place your hands upon them.
  • If you can, write it out and give it to the parents. Especially if the child is very young, it may not be necessary to speak it over the child. Ask God how you should deliver the prophecy.

What parents can do after a child receives a prophetic word

  • Record it.
  • Write it out.
  • Pray through it.
  • Discuss it with your child, how they felt and the meaning.
  • Look at who it says they are ie their identity and character.
  • Look at what it says about their relationship with God.
  • Look at what they will do, their passions.
  • Pray it over your child.
  • Make it visual and put in their bedroom eg paint it, write the words on a poster, be creative with the words and how you can visually present it.
  • Pray a blessing over them using the words.

What are the principles and safety guidelines you and your church follow in regard to giving prophetic words to kids? I would love to hear them. Please feel free to comment below. Thanks.

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: Using the paper cardboard cut outs of people, write a name on the back of each paper cutout until you have included the names of every person in the room. Shuffle the cardboard cutouts. Pass them out so that everyone in the room has one cardboard cutout. Ask each person to write or draw a prophetic word or picture on the front of the cardboard cutout without turning the cardboard person over to see who it is for. When everyone has finished drawing/writing, ask people, one at a time, to speak it over the person whose name is on the back.

2. Group Activation: Ask each adult present to write the names of each of their children (together with the child’s age) on the top of individual sheets of paper ie one name per piece of paper. Collect the sheets of paper. Shuffle them. Hand out the sheets of paper so that each child will have something written or drawn about them. If more adults present, they can join together to prophesy. Give people 10-15 minutes to write or draw on the sheet of paper a prophetic word for the child. Collect the papers and redistribute to the correct parents.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to remind you of someone who is pregnant or has a newborn baby. Write a prophetic word for that baby. You may even like to ask God to show you a prophetic object that would be suitable to buy for the baby as well.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you a child who is in a stage of transition eg one school to another, primary school to high school, selecting career subjects at school etc. Write a prophetic word for that child, then pass it to the parent.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to remind you of a child with special needs. Write a prophetic word for this child. Ask God to show you an object or present that fits in with your prophesy that you could buy for this child. Give the prophetic word and the object to the parent when you have finished.

Recording Prophetic Words

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Part of the prophetic protocols at our church (Stairway) is that prophetic words are recorded. It is common and usual to hear someone ask a person for permission if they can share with them something that they sense God is showing/telling them about that person. The other common and usual protocol is to then see that person about to receive the prophetic word pulling out their smartphone to record what is about to be said.

During prophetic presbytery’s when people come forward for a prophetic word, I will ask people if they have a recording device ready to record what I am about to say.

If I am prophesying over complete strangers in a shop, I don’t ask them if they want to record it as I couch the prophetic word in complete non Christian terms and don’t want to presume that they will value it or want to work with the prophecy. During those times, I want to communicate the heart of God. That He sees them, that He knows them, that He understands what they are going through and that there is a future for them.

Why record a prophetic word?

  1. Accountability

Recording a prophetic word keeps both the receiver and the deliverer accountable. When I give a prophetic word, I am accountable for what I am sharing. If it is wrong, negative, discouraging, totally inaccurate, etc then I need to be held accountable and spoken to, and then receive training in how to deliver a prophetic word. The receiver also is then accountable for what they do with the prophetic word. Hopefully this is to listen to it again several times, pray through it, type it out etc.

Six years ago, I gave a prophetic word to a team member about her ability and future leadership. Several months later, I was asked by the leadership of the group if I could remember what I actually said. This person had challenged the current leadership and communicated that I had prophesied that they would be the overall leader of the group the following year. Thankfully, for my sake, there was a record of what was actually communicated.

  1. Accuracy

Our memory is not 100% perfect. We all have selective memory. How many times have you thought or believed someone said something, when in fact, if you had an opportunity to play back what was actually said, it was slightly different? Not only hearing what we think versus what was actually communicated but also the lens through which we interpret.

When we returned from Mozambique seven years ago, I can remember saying that the prophetic word we had received said ‘the real reason we went to Mozambique was because of our daughter’. A close friend read the actual prophetic word and challenged me as it said, ‘going to Mozambique had a lot to do with our daughter’s future’. Slight difference in wording but a massive difference in meaning.

  1. Personal responsibility

Please do not come up to someone who has prophesied over you and apologise for not recording the prophecy but ask them if they can write down what they said to you. It is your responsibility to record any prophetic prophecies over you. Once the person has prophesied over you, they are no longer responsible for that prophetic word. It has been delivered to you.

I have lost count of the number of times someone has come to me and asked it I can remember what I said to them as they didn’t record it. I’m sorry but usually as soon as I give the prophetic word, I forget most of it. I may remember the exciting part or a sense or picture of something I said but not the actual wording or tone or feel. I feel o’kay about that since I have fulfilled my part. It was their part/responsibility to record it and then deal with it. Thus, now days, usually before I give a prophetic word to someone, I ask if they have a recording device handy.

  1. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelations 19:10)

When two or more people prophecy the same thing over you, then you definitely know that there is an accuracy there that you can rely on as truth and use as a prophetic weapon for your life. One of the benefits of recording your prophetic word is that you can write it out and see the accuracy of it lining up with other prophetic words you have received.

  1. Growth in giving prophetic words

Every so often I find it helpful for me, as someone prophesying over someone else, to ask their permission if I can record what I am about to say so that I can learn from it and use it as a tool for growth. Listening to what I have prophesied afterwards, I can hear if I have rambled on, excessively repeated myself, hit the target and been definitive and accurate or massaged the message to allow leeway etc.

  1. Prophesying over children

We always record prophetic words spoken over children (under 16 years of age) and make sure that an adult (parent or guardian or children’s leader) is also present. We then give the recording to the parent of the child. This helps to keep us accountable in our ministry to children and keep all children safe from emotional harm.

Conclusion:

For those people giving Prophetic words, please encourage the person to record it. For both your sakes. Accountability and accuracy for yourself. For encouragement and accuracy for them.

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: Write the names of everyone present on individual slips of paper. Fold each slip of paper and slide it into a separate balloon. Everyone then has fun blowing up a balloon, tying it and then bursting it. Unwrap the piece of paper and find whose name is on your slip of paper. Ask God what He wants to tell that person. Communicate that to that person.

2. Group Activation: Play musical chairs. Place enough chairs (or if space limited, place coloured pieces of paper) in the middle of the room for everyone playing minus 2 people. Play music and ask everyone to move clockwise around the chairs. When the music stops, everyone runs to sit on a chair. The 2 people without chairs are out. Whilst the music plays for the next round and you remove two more chairs, have those 2 people just out prophesy over each other. The next two people out then prophesy over each other until the remaining two people are the only ones left in the game. They then give each other a prophetic word.

3. Beginner Activation: Take a $50 note out of your wallet (or the highest value note in your wallet) and spend some time prophesying over the people whose hands it will pass through. Place it back in your wallet and try and use that note next time you are shopping.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to give you a name of a book to buy and who to buy it for. Ask God for a prophetic word to write on a slip of paper to put inside the book before you give the book to that person.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to show you someone struggling with purity in their life. Spend time crafting a prophetic word for them about how God sees them, remembering to keep it encouraging, comforting and edifying.