When I can’t hear from God for myself.

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

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

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

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

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

First Principle: Ask a Different Question

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

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

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

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

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

Second Principle: Check obedience.

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

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

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

Check:

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

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

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

Questions to ponder to begin the process may include:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Am I devouring God’s Word? Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
  • Have I tried fasting?
  • What has God already given or shown me?
  • What has He promised me?
  • Speak life over my situation. Isaiah 55:11 “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Alternatively, have you ever asked God:

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

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

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

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

1. Children / Families Activation: Gather Lego or building apparatus and enjoy creating what God is saying about you.

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

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

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

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

Excerpt from my new book!!

Friends, I am so excited. My new book is about to be released and today’s blog post includes a chapter. It is a  30 Day Devotional from Mark’s Gospel entitled:

Ministering like Jesus

How to Grow in Healing, Deliverance and Miracles


DAY 15: MARK 5:22-34 

Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’”

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”


Jesus loves people. He loves healing people and bringing transformation to them. He loves addressing the real issue.

In today’s reading, we see two stories interwoven – two people from the extremes of society. The end of the first story about the synagogue leader and his daughter carries over into tomorrow’s devotion.

A synagogue leader well placed in society has a 12-year-old daughter (verse 42). He asks Jesus to come to heal his daughter, and Jesus immediately goes with him, no questions asked. We can only presume that doctors could not do anything to treat her.

We then see a woman with bleeding issues, who has been ostracized from society for twelve years. She is considered unclean and cannot touch anyone. No doctors could heal her either. She suffered physically and emotionally, and financially as she was now penniless from seeking healing.

The number twelve was significant for both people. Twelve represented faith, perfection, authority, power, completion.

Both this woman and Jairus exhibited faith in Jesus before they felt or saw the healing. They both fully knew and believed that Jesus was the answer. They did not question Jesus’ ability to heal them.

This woman comes up behind Jesus where He cannot see her and touches Him, making Him ‘unclean’ by doing this. She does not want attention. She wants to remain ‘invisible’. Maybe that was why she did not face Him and ask Him to heal her. Instead, choosing to extend her arm to touch His garment discretely. It seems like she was hoping He would not notice. Due to her bleeding condition, which made her an outcast, she was ‘invisible’ to society, and this was no different. She did not want anyone, even Jesus, to ‘notice’ her. Maybe she thought that she was not good enough, rich enough, significant enough, influential enough.

Nursing a critically ill lady in Coronary Care, we were on the brink of an emergency. Alarms were loudly beeping, her blood pressure plummeting, her heart rate severely dropping, and this lady knew she was in grave danger. The doctors were just outside the door, discussing her condition and how soon we could transfer her to another hospital. She needed more intensive care and access to new treatment methods before receiving a heart-lung transplant.

I had been sharing with this lady about Jesus. This lady recognized that Jesus could heal and was good at healing. But she did not believe that Jesus would heal her. She thought that she was not good enough; that she had not led a life worthy of being healed.

There was no time left. I frantically uttered, “Heart be healed in Jesus’ name.” That was it. She was deteriorating so rapidly I did not have time for anything else as I was juggling medication infusion lines.

The alarms frantically changed their sounds, and as I looked at all her heart and lung measurements from all the tubing we had in place, I realized things had stabilized.

The Doctors flung the door open and hurried in, expressing disbelief at all the measurements on the monitor.

“What’s happened?” they asked. “What did you do?”

What could I say? ‘I prayed for this lady, and God healed her.’

The Doctors preceded to take all the measurements to double-check. Yes. The monitor readings were accurate. The recordings were so good that this lady was able to be taken off the heart-lung transplant list as she no longer needed a new heart. Still on the lung transplant list (until her next admission when she was prayed for again and was totally healed.)

I was speechless. God could heal in an emergency like this. God could also heal people when they did not believe they were worthy enough. It is not about their relationship with God. It is all about God and the goodness and kindness of God.

The woman in the passage today knew the imbalance of societal value and feeling worthless. Here was Jesus, a powerful man, on the way to another powerful man’s house. Not only was she a woman, and a woman of a lower societal standing, but an outcast due to her bleeding.

Yet she persisted.

After everything she had overcome, she finally reached Jesus.

Immediately this woman knew in her body that she was healed. Instantaneously. Jesus also felt the difference as the power left Him. How often do we ‘feel’ the Holy Spirit as He connects with whom we are praying?

What I find extremely interesting is that Jesus could have just kept going about His business. People were crowding Him, jostling Him, pushing Him. But He still stopped and acknowledged this woman. He wanted to meet her face to face, to talk with her. To re-establish her standing in society by pronouncing her healed, thus cleansed, and blessing her with peace as she left.

This woman ends up telling Jesus the ‘whole truth’. Do we tell Jesus everything? The whole truth?

Jesus finishes the interaction by calling her ‘daughter’, a title that indicates intimacy, acceptance and position. All the things she was missing in society due to her illness.

Do we take that extra time to ‘finish’ what Jesus is doing? With this lady, the healing and transformation were miraculous, but it was the restoring her place in society that was the ‘icing on the cake’, the completion. Jesus was letting her know, face to face, that she was now completely healed in all areas.

Reflection:

  • How desperate am I for my healing? To what lengths will I go to receive my healing?
  • Do I tell Jesus the whole truth about myself, how I am feeling, my doubts?
  • What is my understanding and experience of the goodness and kindness of God?
  • Do I allow people to meet face to face with Jesus for themselves?
  • Do I take the time to see what else Jesus wants to restore in a person’s life after they have received healing? Do I take that extra time to allow Jesus to ‘finish’ what He is doing?

Prayer:

Jesus, thank you for Your stunning example of how You treat people. How You are always willing and available to take the extra time with people, despite the apparent pressures around you.

Help me Lord to follow Your example.

Lord, may I be an accurate representation of Your kindness, goodness and love to others. I decree today that I will make time to show kindness to others.

Help me to have the faith of this lady and Jairus and fully believe that You are the answer to all my needs.

Lord, I commit to sharing my innermost thoughts and feelings with You. I desire to hold nothing back from You. To linger in Your presence and remain close. To spend time with You, no matter what. Lord, I declare that I will make us a priority today.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The key for me today is:

 


Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

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

1. Children / Families Activation:  Put some favourite music on quietly and spend time as a family asking God to show or tell you what He thinks of you each. Then ask God who He would like you to encourage this week. Ask God how you could best encourage that person.

2. Group Activation: Compile a list of your group member’s birthdays. Allocate a different month, or a week, to different people within your group. Ask the group members to find a creative way of expressing how God views each person within their group. You may need to ask permission first to share contact details or arrange a zoom call for the group where members could share what they received from God for each person.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God writing down everything you love about God. Then spend time listening to Him and writing down everything He loves about you.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you a creative way of expressing God’s love for the workers at your local supermarket. Then do it.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time hearing from God about the organization and people in W.H.O. (World Health Organization) & the United Nations Secretariat. Hear God’s heart and His purpose for these people and ask God what He would like you to do in response to what He has shared with you.

Prayer about Coronavirus

Earlier this week, I felt to write a crafted prayer for the use of our Stairway Healing Room Team Members in regard to the Coronavirus. This morning I feel to share it with you.

 

Prayer in regard to the Coronavirus

Heavenly Father, thank you that You are all-powerful, all-knowing and present everywhere.

Thank you, Father God, that You are love and that the Holy Spirit did not bring a spirit of fear but power, love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

Father God, I decree and declare that I will not partner with fear and hysteria.

Father God, I decree and declare that I will look to You, listen to You, and trust You as the source of all wisdom and knowledge. I declare that I will have the mind of Christ and clarity of thought in regard to the Coronavirus. (1 Corinthians 2:15-16)

Father God, I partner with You and decree and declare that the COVID-19 virus and all similar viruses and strains become impotent now; that they all cease to exist now in Jesus name. I decree and decree in the name of Jesus Christ and through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ that all transmissions of the virus be halted now.

Father God, I decree and declare that news of Your love, power, kindness, goodness and miracles fill the media and sound waves from this point on.

I partner with You, Holy Spirit, and decree and declare that I will live in a healthy manner and keep my body healthy in all areas and in improving my immune system.

In the name of Jesus Christ, I call my spirit to attention and bless it with micromanaging within my body the immune response to all foreign viruses.

Thank you, Father God, for the promises in Your Word, especially Psalm 91, that as I dwell in the shelter and Shadow of You, I will be shielded from all harm and that Your faithfulness will be my shield.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, that You know the plans for me, plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Heavenly Father, I ask now that Your peace, presence, mercy and healing will come upon all those currently affected with the Coronavirus. For all those living in isolation or fear, that Your presence and peace and kindness will surround them.

I partner with You, Holy Spirit, and decree that I will look out for my neighbours, the elderly and those suffering from the effects of the Coronavirus and the fear surrounding it.

I decree and declare now that I will appropriately share the Good News of Jesus Christ with everyone I am able to and that many will turn to You, Father God, during this time.

Thank you, Jesus, that You came to bring life and to bring it abundantly. (John 10:10).

In Jesus’ name. 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 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: Spend time with your children, explaining at an appropriate level to your children about the Coronavirus and reading a couple of key verses from the Bible (2 Timothy 1:7, Jeremiah 29:11, and Psalm 91). Have paper and pencils/crayons/textas and each draw a picture for your family in regards to what you feel God is showing, telling or giving you in regards to the Coronavirus. Maybe even have playdough available for each person to make something to show how they are feeling about the Coronavirus.

2. Group Activation: Spend some time seeking God in regards to a prophetic act  (something you do in the physical that has spiritual implications) that you can do as a group in regards to the Coronavirus situation. Finish by spending time hearing from God and prophesying what you hear, sense and see from God about the outcomes of the destruction that has occurred (ie prophesy into being the opposite of the negatives that have occurred).

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with Father God, meditating on His love. Look up Scriptures on overcoming fear. Ask God to show you someone who is struggling with fear in relation to Coronavirus. Write a prophetic declaration for them from what you hear, sense and see God revealing to you through Himself and Scripture.

4. Intermediate Activation: Spend time with Father God, lifting your nation’s leaders up to Him. Ask God to show you what to pray at this time for your leaders and your nation. Turn your prayer into a prophecy and declare it.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him His perspective of the Coronavirus and the impact and future of it. Ask God to show you the outcome and key to the end of the coronavirus. Prophesy to the coronavirus.

Creating your own Prayer Closet

For the first twenty years of my marriage, I strongly disliked ironing. I now love ironing. What caused the 180° turnaround?

Prayer.

Not prayer that I would love ironing.

Prayer whilst I was ironing.

When the kids were younger, ironing was the one place I was never disturbed. I found that I finally had a few minutes of peace – mental and physical. I then began to use that time to pray for friends and start interceding for them. I then realised that some friends were consistently asking for prayer and there were so many issues popping up in people’s lives that I was spending more time praying for them than my own husband and kids.

I made a change to pray for my family to begin with whilst ironing. Now, I can’t believe how quickly the time seems to go when I’m ironing a basket of clothes. (Whilst writing this blog post, I have just realised that when I am in the laundry, I look at a blank wall. After googling ‘prayer closet’, I have now received inspiration to put some artwork and Bible verses and encouraging pictures on that wall for inspiration when praying.)

I also have found that since I use that time in the laundry to pray, it has created an atmosphere of prayer in there. I can sense it when I go in there.

Concerted prayer in the one place changes the atmosphere over that tiny piece of earth. Where I stand whilst ironing has a ‘grace’ upon it for answered prayer. Whilst ironing, I often find myself asking God questions about various issues. Almost immediately I will sense the answer. It is like so much connection and relationship between God and I have occurred on that very piece of my floor, that God answers immediately. The atmosphere is rich with grace and mercy.

Much the same as our shower. When I have a shower, I often pray for friends. Now I have quick showers as I was brought up on a farm and on tank-water, we were only allowed one-minute showers. Thus, as soon as I jump in the shower, I ask God what He wants me to pray for a certain friend. Tuesdays I pray for my friend Katharine who does prison ministry that day. Almost immediately God will download to me what to decree and declare for her. So, I immediately do it. All up, 30 to sixty seconds maximum. Due to daily spending time in that place, the atmosphere has become rich in there so that I can hear God immediately. Like a ‘thin place’ between heaven and earth.

A thin place is a location where we can sense the divine more easily and readily. A place where the space between heaven and earth grows thin and the Sacred and the secular seem to meet.

A ‘thin place’ comes from the mystical world of Celtic spirituality. The Celtic Christians were known for believing, and practicing, that the most ordinary elements of everyday life are infused deeply with God’s presence.

Do you have the one or two places you love to spend time praying in? If not, I encourage you to find a place where you feel comfortable, where you are alone with God, where you won’t necessarily be disturbed and begin to build up the prayer ground in that place.

For inspiration, the movie “The War Room” inspired many people to build a prayer closet in their house. If you google ‘prayer closet’, there are oodles of photos for inspiration. For me, I prefer a portable prayer closet, in the shower or laundry or with my journal in a favourite chair. You may prefer out in nature, on the beach, during a walk in the park. It doesn’t matter where. What matters is that you have somewhere you feel comfortable spending time investing in your relationship with 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 practice to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and see and sense God and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Ask God to show, tell or give you a picture of how He sees your teacher. Share with the rest of the family or group. Draw a picture of this to give to your teacher. Share with your parents and maybe even make or buy something that resembles how God sees them.

2. Group Activation: Explain to the group that you will ask them to get up and move around the room. You will have some music playing and at short intervals, you will stop the music. As soon as the music stops, they are to find a partner. Then they have one minute to ask God for a book of the Bible for their partner and why that book relates to them. Allow a few minutes for people to share with their partner, but keep it short and snappy. Then repeat the process, with people finding new partners when the music next stops. At the end, debrief and see how many people received the same book of the Bible or if they received different ones but they were all applicable.

3. Beginner Activation: Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Spend time seeking God’s heart for yourself. Then write a letter to yourself from God.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you a person in a leadership position who desperately needs encouragement. Seek God how you can most effectively give them a prophetic word that will encourage them.

5. Advanced Activation: Address the latest issue that has become a worldwide fear eg Coronavirus that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Ask God for His heart and His perspective on this and what He would have your role to be. Then do what He shows or tells you.

When the same person keeps asking for a Prophetic Word

Like clockwork, every few months, the same person would approach me for a prophetic word. They would start by explaining how they were wanting a prophetic word from me so that they had something to hang on to in their time of struggle.

Immediately this raises a red flag with me.

Firstly, they need God to hang on to in this time. God needs to be their source of comfort, inspiration, and wisdom during their time of struggle (in fact all the time) rather than me hearing from God for them.

Secondly, they have had numerous prophetic words in the past. Prophetic words are especially for such a time as this. Just because they are going through a new season of struggle, doesn’t mean that their ‘old’ prophetic word is no longer viable. Prophetic words can be for the ‘here and now’ but they usually seem to be for a few steps time. Prophetic words are meant to be ‘encouraging, comforting and strengthening’ (1 Corinthians 14:3). Thus, they are great to get out in times of hardship and work through and see what God wants to be for you during this time.

Prophetic words usually address identity and destiny. Who you are and who God wants to be for you during this time are what identity words are all about.

Hubby also has had similar situations where a certain single lady would, on a regular monthly occasion, ask him for a prophetic word. He addresses this issue by saying that he won’t give a person another prophetic word, when they keep asking, until they have worked through their last prophetic word.

Usually when people are asking for a new prophetic word and they have been given numerous prophetic words in the last year or so, it becomes a discipleship issue. The person need to be taught that they need to go to God Himself. To put in the time and relationship with Father God, Holy Spirit and Jesus.

Please never become a substitute for a person seeking God for themselves. Jesus was, and is, the only ‘go-between’ in our relationship with God.

If a person is having trouble hearing from God for themselves, you will have a far greater impact if you help them to hear or receive from God for themselves.

Start with helping them look at how much time they are setting aside to spend with God. Do they prioritise Him each day? Are they reading the Bible? Are they looking to God for their answers?

Then, you may help them to have an encounter with God or give them tools to spice up their relationship with God.

Some of these tools may be to:

  1. Try spending time with God in a different setting eg in nature, at the beach, outside, in a different chair, etc.
  2. Try setting aside a different time of the day to specifically focus on God.
  3. Try reading the Bible a different way eg using an audio version or a new app or a different version or a DVD version. The IF:Gathering app has numerous amazing four week Bible study series on it which I have found extremely helpful.
  4. Try writing out verses from the Bible each day.
  5. Ask God to show you pictures or images of yourself or your day.
  6. Put worship music on and rest with worship filling your head.
  7. Find new ways of being in awe of God and thanking Him.We are not in the business of making people reliant on us. We are not their Saviour. We need to be pointing them to God Himself.

We are not in the business of making people reliant on us. We are not their Saviour. We need to be pointing them to God Himself.

 

Leading people through an encounter with God is effective for the here and now but it also gives them a tool for when they are stuck again.

Leading people into an encounter with God can be very simple.

  1. Ask the person to get into a comfortable position and close their eyes to help minimise any distractions.
  2. Ask the person to imagine that they are in a favourite place for them. Ask them to share with you what it looks like, smells like, feels like.
  3. Ask them to then imagine Jesus coming into that scene. Imagine that they see Jesus walking up to them and sitting, standing, just being next to them or in front of them. What is He doing? What does He say?
  4. Imagine that He has a present He wants to give to them. What does that present look like? What shape is it? How is it wrapped and what colour is the wrapping?
  5. Unwrap the present. What is it? What does that mean to them?
  6. How do they want to respond to Jesus?

Variety is the spice of life. Just how you sometimes need to vary stuff in your relationship with your partner or children or friends, it is also helpful to vary things in your relationship with God.

I would love to hear of different methods you have used when someone keeps coming to you for a prophetic word and how you have helped them refocus back on to their relationship with 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 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: Lead children into an encounter like the one above, imagining that Jesus has a present for them. Ask them questions to find out what the special present Jesus has for each one of them.

2. Group Activation: Buy an assortment of small chocolate bars that have different names eg Cadbury favourites. Place them in a bag deep enough so that you can’t see what you are selecting. Have each person put their hand in the bag and bring out a chocolate. The person then asks God for a prophetic word about the name of the chocolate bar for a person in the group. Hand the chocolate bar to the person as you share the prophetic word with them. If it is a large group, perhaps split into several smaller group, each group having their own chocolate assortment in a bag.

3. Beginner Activation: Open your calendar/diary before God. Ask Him to show or tell you something significant that you need to realise and what you need to do in response.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight a family to you. Spend time with God hearing or seeing what is on His heart for this family as a group and for the members individually. Draw or write the encouraging response and then ask God how you are meant to communicate it to this family.

5. Advanced Activation: Dream with God for one thing to change in the world this year and what the change could look like. Ask God to highlight to you your part in bringing about that change. Then ask God to show, tell or give you a strategy for your part.

My Prayer for You

As we go into this New Year, I am praying this blessing over you, my blog readers.

(I encourage you to put your name in the space and say this blessing over you 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. It helps grow your spirit on the inside.)

“…(your name)…” I call your spirit to attention and bless you with fresh eyes to see and ears to hear that which God is doing around you and what He is calling you to. I bless you with seeing God in the small things and the big. I bless you with experiencing ‘God kisses’ each day where God shows you something that is personal for you or something that you can delight in.

I bless you ……….. with joy. I bless you with being able to experience true joy and freedom and being able to laugh. Laugh at yourself, laugh in the face of adversity, laugh with others. Like the woman in Proverbs 31:25, I bless you with being able to laugh without fear of the future.

I bless you ………… with being able to rest. Able to rest in God and with God. I bless you with being able to operate from a place of rest and not needing to strive or attain perfection. I bless you with being comfortable being you, the amazing person God created you to be. I bless you with peace.

I bless you ……….. with wrestling with God in the hard times and when you don’t understand or like what is happening. I bless you with being totally honest with God and laying everything out before Him. I bless you with working with God to come to a place of peace and knowing that God is truly a God who cares for you and loves you and is there for you no matter what.

I bless you ……….. with relationships that are deep and meaningful and sustainable. I bless you with the courage to form new friendships and to see those who need a special human touch and someone to just notice them. I bless you with partnering every day with God in communicating with others how God loves them. I bless you with receiving a special touch from someone in those times when you need a human interaction.

I bless you ……….. with knowing how valuable and unique you are. I bless you with knowing how important you are to your family and friends and to this world.

I bless you ……..… with an increased awareness of God, Holy Spirit and Jesus. I bless you with feeling and seeing and hearing a whole lot of new things about Jesus. I bless you with going deeper in intimacy with Father God. I bless you with allowing the Holy Spirit to have His way in your life and to flow in and through you. I bless you with a love for reading the Word of God.

I bless you ………… with hearing and seeing and knowing God’s goodness and desires and plans for you and I bless you as you seek Him and realise them for yourself. I bless you with Jeremiah 29:11 for knowing the plans that God has for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. I bless you in experiencing this come to fruition.

I bless you ……….. with the courage to step out and prophesy over people, to see healings occur and to operate in a whole new area of supernatural miracles and provision.

I bless you …….…. with being able to create space in your calendar and time schedule so as to be able to implement those things and actions that God is calling you to.

I bless you …..…… with being able to create space in your life and daily activities so that you can hear, see and feel God afresh and in more intimate ways. I bless you with being able to enjoy this year and to have fun, laugh aloud and see the good in every situation. Most of all, I bless you with experiencing how God is present with you at all times.

In Jesus’ name, 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 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: Spend time with God as a family and ask God to show you one thing He would like you to do as a family this year. List what every person says. Create a vision board or picture from what was said or write these things down and put them in a place where family members can see it.

2. Group Activation: Break into pairs. Spend five minutes listening to God as to what He would like to communicate to your partner. Then turn that into a blessing and pray that blessing over your partner. (Instead of saying “I pray …” say “I bless you with …”)

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God and ask Him what He would like you to focus on this year. Try and narrow it down to one word if you can.

4. Intermediate Activation: Choose a group or an activity that you are involved with. Ask God to show you His heart for this group this coming year. If appropriate, write this down and share with the leader of the group.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God hearing His heart for world events for this coming year. Write down what you are sensing, hearing, seeing. Keep this confidential. At the end of the year, look at what you have written and see what has unfolded for the year and how accurate you were in what you were sensing.

Visual Reminders for Prophesying

Over the last fortnight I have taught the teenagers (ages 13-15) in our church’s Teen Leadership Academy. Some of these teenagers have grown up in our church and have had numerous teaching on the prophetic before and have also been involved in giving numerous prophetic words to people. Others were brand new to hearing God’s voice.

Our aim was to help these teens not only hear God for themselves but also for others. A secondary aim was to invite these teens to release prophetic words to individuals after our church service along with the adult prophetic team.

After we had looked at hearing God’s voice for ourselves, I concentrated on hearing God’s voice for others. To help introduce the purpose and aims of prophesying to others, I gave each teen a ‘goodies’ bag. These bags had eight items in them. They were a huge hit!! Visual cues help reinforce our teaching point so much more effectively.

These items were:

  1. Heart shaped sunglasses

So important to have love as the basis for communicating God’s heart to others.

  1. Packet of very sour & very sweet lollies

When we are prophesying to others, we want to leave a ‘sweet’ taste in their mouth. We do not want to leave a sour taste.

  1. Candle

When we prophesy, we want to light a fire within them that burns for what we have communicated.

  1. Gold medal

Each person has their own race to run and must run their race. The medal symbolised us enabling them to see, through our prophesying, what their race is that they are called to run and finish.

  1. Water pistol

When we prophesy, we are called to hit the target that God has placed on their life.

  1. Australian Tattoo

We are Australian. That is who we are. An Australian tattoo symbolises our identity.  Part of prophesying is calling people into their full identity as sons and daughters of God.

  1. Ring

Another part of prophesying is helping people to realise their full authority. The ring symbolises the ring the Father placed on the prodigal son. This means having full identity and authority as the Father’s child.

  1. Key attached to a (photocopied) computer ESC key

(This was a stretch but all I could think of that communicated the acronym ‘ESC’). 1 Corinthians 14:3 says that all prophecy should be encouraging, strengthening and comforting.

The teens loved it and the following week could remember all the objects they had received in their bag.

What are your thoughts?

What are some other items you may have included to help them remember what prophesying over others is about?

I would love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to comment or let me know.

 

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: Have gold/yellow cardboard precut to look like a medal. Punch a hole in it and thread cord through it so that it looks like a winners medal. Have pens/pencils handy. Ask each person to make a medal for themself about what God says that they are the winner for in Heaven and here on earth. If time, ask them to make one for someone else, asking God what that person’s purpose is here on earth or the race they will win at running.

2. Group Activation: Have sheets of A4 paper and pens/textas handy. Distribute a sheet of paper to everyone. Ask them to place their name in the middle of the page followed by the word ‘is’. eg ‘Jane is’. Then ask everyone to give their paper to the person on their left. This person will write one sentence that they sense, hear or see from God about who that person is. Then ask everyone to keep passing the paper around to the people on their left until at least everyone’s sheet of paper has at least ten sentences on it about who they are, their identity. Return the sheets to their owners. Maybe even have someone speak the sentences over each person as the papers are returned to their rightful owner.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend some time with God asking Him to show or tell you how He sees you dressedAs you begin to hear or see or sense what it is, then ask God further questions. Eg Why am I dressed that way? Is this how I am seen in Heaven? What is on my head? What would you like to put in my right hand God? etc

4. Intermediate Activation: Find a community group that is struggling in its identity. Ask God for a prophetic word about this group’s identity. Ask God how to most effectively release that word to the group.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God for a prophetic word for your nation’s first people and their future. Ask God what He would like you to then do with that prophetic word. Then do it.

Growing our Faith

faithIn living a natural supernatural life, it is important to grow your faith to believe that God can, and will, do anything. I have prayed for God to heal someone of cancer and they received complete healing. I have also seen my mother die of cancer but I haven’t let that deter me. I have seen a man’s eyesight restored. I have seen a lady healed of needing a heart lung transplant. Perhaps the greatest miracle I have seen is for people to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour.

I recently found up a journal entry I wrote last year about the day before and what had occurred. I am including it here so that you can see an example of believing that God can do the impossible. Lastly, I have listed numerous ways that I grow my faith.

What do you do to grow your faith and the belief that God can, and will, do the impossible?

 

***(Beginning of Journal Entry)***

Believing anything is possible

Hubby and I were in bed last night chatting after a full day of church, hanging out with friends and ministry. Hubby commented on how it was exciting to be in a church where one of the cultural values (whether anyone realises it or not is another question as it is an unwritten and unspoken value) is that of believing that anything is possible with God. Not just believing it, but actively pursuing it.

Core Value:

As we reflected on this more, I realised that whenever we want to see the supernatural become our natural lifestyle, this has to be a core value. That God can and will do anything and that anything is possible with God.

Miracle – an illiterate person able to read the Bible

Yesterday morning in church, we heard an amazing testimony from one of our church members who was ministering in Cambodia. An old village woman had become a Christian and 3 days later wanted to be able to read the Bible but had never had the opportunity to go to school. She heard a testimony from some other people who had supernaturally been given the ability to read the Bible. This lady was prayed for by those people and within 20 minutes or so the lady could read the Bible.

Testimony:

Last night were having a meal with friends and reflecting on the testimonies we hear in church. Most of these testimonies come from the Healing Rooms we are part of. I was voicing that I am a bit tired of hearing about the back pain and the neck aches being healed. Sure, it is a big thing for those people but what about the exciting stuff we see of cancer being healed, eye sight restored, the time I prayed for the lady in hospital who no longer needed a heart lung transplant etc. I then shared how our family had experienced some amazing healings – anaphylaxis, teeth miracles – no longer needing fillings or a root canal etc.

Creative Miracle:

My friend then expressed how she has been waiting for 9 years for a huge creative miracle. Straight away I knew we had to pray for her in this area. So we did. In the natural, it seems completely impossible but with God anything is possible. We joined our faith with hers and her husband’s faith. There were a couple of prophetic acts I asked her to do as I felt they were an important step. A huge step of healing had already been overcome by our friend sharing this unusual and personal issue with us.

Prophetic Act:

In asking my friend to do a certain prophetic act, I was reminded of at least 7 years ago when I was at a ladies’ camp and I really felt to pray for a lady with a thyroid issue who had bulging eyes. This lady at the same time approached me and asked me to pray for her. As I waited briefly to hear from God, I sensed that I was to spit on my hands and place them over her eyes. I was relatively new to praying for physical healing for people and was aghast. “What would the lady think?” As I shared this with the lady, she became very excited. She shared how she had asked God to heal her and that she had told God that she would know if it was going to happen or not if the person praying for healing spat on their hands and placed their hands over her eyes. I learnt a huge lesson that night to be obedient to what God wants you to do.

God is at work:

When we left our friend’s home, nothing had appeared to have occurred in the way of a creative miracle for this lady but something had shifted in the spiritual. I totally believe that God can do this seemingly impossible creative miracle of growing body parts that are no longer there. I also knew that God was at work since we also prayed for my back pain from a pulled muscle that was causing me some incapacity. The pain completely disappeared and I could move freely.

I know that God will come through for this beautiful friend and her miraculous testimony will be huge in her future ministry that she will have in changing teenagers lives and perceptions.

God is in the business of the impossible.

*** (end of Journal entry)*** (Addit – today, yes, this very day, I received a text from my friend saying that the huge supernatural creative miracle had occurred in her body!!)

 

Align your mind:

If you need help in this area, I encourage you to take a Bible verse from the list below. If you believe the Bible is the Word of God, then meditating on the Bible and verses from it, will help your mind align to what God wants to do.

Bible verses:

  • Job 42:1- 2 Then Job replied to the Lord, “I know that you can do all things, no plan of yours can be thwarted.”
  • Jeremiah 32:17 “Ah Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”
  • Matthew 17:20 Jesus replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
  • Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible.”
  • Mark 10:27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
  • Mark 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
  • Luke 1:37 “For nothing is impossible with God.”

Turn these verses into a declaration that you can declare regularly eg “Thank you God that nothing is impossible for you. Thank you, God that you say in your Word that whatever I ask for in prayer and believe that I have received, it will be mine. Father God, I now thank you for giving me (answer to my prayer) and believe that You will give it to me because nothing is impossible for you Father God. Thank you, God.”

 

Ways I grow my faith:

  • Blessing 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. Thus, I need to position myself in places where I will see miracles. I see them in our Healing Rooms where our family are team members. I saw them when I took my family with two young kids to Mozambique for three months. It can be costly to position ourselves but do it if you want to grow your faith.
  • 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.
  • Worshipping God – giving Him glory and worth.
  • 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?”
  • Our identity is so important. We defeat our internal giants first before we take on external ones. Going on a journey of discovering my true identity.
  • We need to become the person God sees us as – claiming & possessing our internal territory.
  • What we say with our words. I try to be very careful about the things I say as the words we speak have power to create. Isaiah 55:11 says “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Where are you currently at in believing for the impossible? Believing with such a certainty, not just that it would be great but a total belief that God can and will do anything.

 

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: Gather paper with pictures on them (eg an old calendar, scrapbooking supplies etc). Distribute the paper around the room, making sure you have enough for each person to choose a sheet. Ask people to get into pairs and then walk around looking at the pictures. When they see a picture that stands out to them or they like, pick up the picture and find their partner. Ask God to show or tell them what the picture represents for their partner or what God wants to say to their partner through the picture. Give their partner the picture to take home.

2. Group Activation: Contact a ministry like ‘Voice of the Martyrs’ for the details of how to support a person imprisoned for their christian faith. Gather blank postcards and pens. Distribute to group members to ask God what to write or draw on the postcard as a prophetic word to encourage and comfort the prisoner. (Leave room for a postage stamp in the top right corner). Gather the completed postcards and send to the ministry to enable them to be posted to the prisoner.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God which food He sees you like or that represents you and what it is about that particular food that relates to you. Spend time asking God more questions about that particular food item and how it applies to yourself.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to bring a homeless person across your path and what you can say, give and do. Ponder this so that you are ready with a physical item to assist them. If no homeless person comes across your path, go out of your way to find someone homeless.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask Father God to highlight a group that you are a part of and that group’s future. Prophecy into the future of the group and the people it interacts with.

Our Beliefs about Healing

Several years ago during our Healing Rooms Board Meeting, our Director was sharing about a team member needing heart surgery. 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 that 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”.

When we have a faulty belief system, it is definitely highlighted in our identity and intimacy with Father God. Out of our identity and our intimacy with Father God comes our authority. 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.

 

My personal beliefs around healing:

  • God is a good God no matter what. We don’t have all the answers, but God remains good. Learning to live with the mystery is part of the journey.
  • God desires that we are all healed – Psalm 103:2-3
  • There is no formula to healing.
  • We don’t have to wait for our healing before we pray for someone else’s healing.
  • You do not have to be a Christian to be supernaturally healed.
  • Don’t blame God for your sickness. God is not the author of your sickness.
  • Sickness does not come from heaven. Sickness is not a blessing.
  • Sickness and pain are not your identity. Your identity is in Christ and you are His Royal son/daughter.
  • God uses medicine to heal people as well as using supernatural miracles.
  • Forgiveness can help aid the process of healing but it is not 100% dependent on it.
  • Our words have the power to create – Isaiah 55:11
  • We are partnering with God to bring Heaven to Earth. What is in Heaven, we bring to earth – Matthew 6:10
  • Believe you are healed.
  • God is always ready to have an encounter with you now and heal you.
  • If someone gets healed, get them to pray for the next person. The healing testimony is powerful. It raises our faith level. Also, if you have been healed of a condition, you carry an authority over that condition and when you pray for others with that condition, you see healing.

Throughout the last ten years, our family has experienced miraculous healings for ourselves and prayed for people for healing. We have seen people healed of cancer, blind eyes see, numerous broken bones healed, numerous teeth / dental miracles, anaphylaxis healed etc.

I encourage you to read through the list above of beliefs about healing. Do any not sit quite right with you? I encourage you to go on a journey with God and ask Him about that belief. Is it incorrect or is it an area in your own life that you need to grow in? Study the verses about that belief in the Bible. Do the hard yards and see what resonates and work out what you believe and what the Bible portrays about healing.

For me to pray for people for healing and see those healings, 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. Next week I will be sharing some ways that you can grow your faith and your view of the greatness of 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 practice to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and see and sense God and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Gather a heap of dress up clothes and identity symbols eg ring, crown, dressing gown, shoes, sword etc. Have fun taking turns dressing each other up in these items and prophesying over them their identity as a child of God.

2. Group Activation: Pass around a slip of paper, pen, a piece of string and a balloon to all participants. Ask people to ask God for a one word prophecy for an anonymous group member. Have everyone write that word on the slip of paper, then fold their slip of paper and insert into the balloon. Blow the balloons up and tie a string around them. Ask people to tie their balloon to their ankle. Then ask everyone to stand and move around the room, asking God whose balloon they should jump on and burst. The balloon the person bursts will contain a slip of paper with the word for them. Allow a few moments to ask God to show people how that word relates to them. Have a few people share the application to their life.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend a few moments with God basking in His presence. Ask Him to show or tell you a type of drink. Ask God what that drink is composed of and how and why it relates to you.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you someone looking to buy or rent a house or wanting to change their housing situation. Ask God for His wisdom and any keys He would love to download to you for them. Write or share a prophetic word with this person about their housing situation. Share appropriately.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God seeking His heart on trafficked humans. Ask Him to show you an area/city/country specifically that He would like you to intercede for. Ask Him to show you what He would have you do, say, decree, pray, prophesy etc about this issue.

Our Authority in Healing

AuthorityImagine 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.

 

Now take a moment to 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)

From the Bible, we see that:

  1. Man’s original commission – Genesis 1:28. God commanded Adam & Eve to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth. It was a command, not optional. God gave them dominion over the earth. God’s Kingdom on earth was an extension of God’s Kingdom in Heaven. God’s Kingdom went wherever Adam & Eve went.
  1. Satan rebelled. Satan & fallen angels were cast out of heaven and they took authority over the earth by deceiving Adam & Eve. God could have destroyed them but He had already given Adam & Eve dominion over the earth.
  1. Jesus came in the form of a man & retrieved what had been given away. He defeated Satan by rising from the dead – victory over sin and death.
  1. When we accept Jesus’ grace & forgiveness, we become an heir of God, a brother / sister to Jesus, a child of God. We share Jesus victory over Satan and have total access to Jesus’ delegated authority which Jesus took back from Satan when Jesus rose from the dead.
  1. 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.

For today:

Matthew 16:18-19 says, “… I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be what is bound in Heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.”

Friends – we have permission from God. We have been given authority to go after that on earth that is not from God. Basically anything on earth that isn’t like that in heaven needs transformation and we have the authority to go after it and change it.

Jesus prayed, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”

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?

Are you chasing after bringing Heaven (& all that is in Heaven eg health, freedom, 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.

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.

Next week I will look at some of the beliefs we have around healing.

 

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: Have paper and pens/pencils handy. Each person choose a neighbour. Ask God to show you what to write or draw (if a drawing, perhaps an adult can write what the drawing is about at the top) that will bless them and encourage them on a sheet of paper for that neighbour. Then post it in their letterbox or hand deliver it to them.

2. Group Activation: Have a device to play music on for a game of “Bob’s and Statues”. Explain the activation and then start playing the music. People are to walk or dance around the room. When you stop the music, have everyone either bob down or stand still as a statue. Have the caller with their back to the people so they can’t see what people are doing and they call out either “bob” or “statue” after the music stops and people have moved into their desired action. Those people that did the action that was called out are ‘safe’ and continue to the next round. Those people who did the opposite action to what was called out have to pair up and give each other a prophetic word based on a famous statue.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to tell you what He thinks of you at the moment. Listen and wait for His reply.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you a teenager who is sitting exams at the moment. Deliver a prophetic word to them about their future that will encourage and comfort them during this time.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to show you someone with special needs. Spend time with God asking Him for a prophetic word for this person. Ask God how to deliver this prophecy to them and when.