Easter Blessing

Dear Readers and Subscribers to my blog,

As we journey towards Easter over these next few days, I want to release a blessing over you that incorporates the values of Easter and the journey Jesus made.  I encourage you to say this blessing over yourself out aloud. Feel free to read this aloud over your family and significant others in your life. There is power in not only reading a blessing but speaking it out aloud over you and calling your spirit to attention first. It helps grow your spirit on the inside.

 

“I call your spirit to attention and bless you throughout this Easter season.

I bless you with being able to communicate yourself fully and articulately. I bless you with intimacy and fun in your relationship with Jesus. I bless you with knowing your true identity and allowing people to know the real you. I bless you with being celebrated for who you really are. I bless you with allowing others to extravagantly express generosity towards you and it to flow abundantly from you. I bless you with ease and acceptance with those few close people in your life, that you can truly be yourself and disclose your true feelings. I bless you in discerning the flattery and the ability to see the lies and the truth.

I bless you in keeping focussed on what God is focussed on, your gaze focussed where God’s eyes are focussed. I bless you with peace in the uncertainty of the future. I bless you when you dread the immediate future. That you will be able to glimpse the other side of the huge mountain just in front of you and it will sustain you in the plodding onwards. I bless you in keeping alert when the things of this world press upon you. With not slumbering but having an alert spirit at all times.

I bless you with integrity. Compassion. Standing firm amidst any false accusation and that you will see your name cleared and your reputation upheld. I bless you in being able to forgive the betrayal and the lies. I bless you when it appears to be the end of your dreams and I bless you with perseverance to see the start of redemption. I bless you with being able to see things as God sees them.

I bless you with journeying close to Christ during the dark times. With knowing the love of the Father so intimately and realising that one day you will understand more fully the dark and lonely times. I bless you with holding on to hope when everything seems hopeless. I bless you with realising Jesus is with you in that crushing, seemingly senseless time of pain that overwhelms.

I bless you in the waiting season. For perseverance. For joy in the journey. I bless you with intimacy and finding shelter in the secure and intimate place. I bless you with having people support you through all times. I bless you with being prepared to last the journey that is your call, despite the circumstances.

I bless you with seeing the answers to your greatest prayers. I bless you with experiencing the risen Christ and the full impact of that in your life – joy, life, hope, freedom, reconciliation, fulfilling potential and reaching your destiny. I bless you with a new and renewed perspective of God’s love, goodness, grace and mercy. I bless you with being able to celebrate and celebrate well. I bless you with enlarging your supernatural gifts and seeing miracles in your everyday life. I bless you with seeing and taking opportunities to share God’s goodness with others and your testimony of what God has done in your own life. I bless you in living in a new way with a new attitude. I bless you with a burning desire to devour the Bible, the Word of God, and love reading it. I bless you with allowing the Holy Spirit to permeate and access every part of your life and fill you to overflowing, accessing deeper levels of empowerment and intimacy.

I bless you with finishing well. With staying the course. With being a world changer.”

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every week I list 5 prophetic activations/exercises under children/family, group, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The purpose of these exercises is to practice to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and see and sense God and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Ask the children present to pray a blessing over each adult. If they have never done this before, pray a blessing over them first. Practice calling each other’s spirit to attention first as this commands your spirit on the inside of you to stand to attention to fully hear and absorb what is being said.

2. Group Activation: Partner up and spend a few minutes asking God to show you what He would like you to pray for your partner. Then turn the prayer into a blessing and pray aloud a blessing over your partner that incorporates what God showed you.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God listening to Him about what He would like to bless you with. Then write out the blessing for yourself. Say it aloud over yourself and begin a practice of daily praying it over yourself.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you His heart for your local church and the leaders. Compile this into a blessing that you can pray aloud daily for the next little while, calling the spirit, heart and identity of your local church to attention.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God aligning His heart for your nation with your heart. In Australia at the moment, we have an election in a few weeks and this is a fantastic time to be blessing the heart and identity of the nation as it can significantly affect the future of Australia. Compile a blessing for the nation, the leaders and politicians. Pray it aloud daily over your nation for the next little while.

Helping my Children to hear from God part 2

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.