Tag Archives: Living a victorious christian life

It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!

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Have you been side-tracked by COVID-19 and your heart preparation for Easter sidelined?

I woke up this morning and realised this was occurring in our household. We haven’t even thought about Easter this year and it is next weekend. I feel like Easter has been hijacked. Christianity’s greatest historical moment pushed to the side, drowned by COVID-19.

Several times overnight the following sermon was swirling through my head. I first heard Dr Tony Campolo, a sociologist from USA speaking it when I was a teenager, but the originator was a Pastor involved in the Civil Rights movement, Shadrach Meschach Lockridge from Calvary Baptist Church, San Diego, California. (If you can watch it on YouTube, it is worth it!!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cikenKl92Og

 

“It’s Friday. Jesus is praying. Peter’s a sleeping. Judas is betraying. But Sunday’s comin’.

It’s Friday. Pilate’s struggling. The council is conspiring. The crowd is vilifying. They don’t even know that Sunday’s comin’.

It’s Friday. The disciples are running like sheep without a shepherd. Mary’s crying. Peter is denying. But they don’t know that Sunday’s a comin’.

It’s Friday. The Romans beat my Jesus. They robe him in scarlet. They crown him with thorns. But they don’t know that Sunday’s comin’.

It’s Friday. See Jesus walking to Calvary. His blood dripping. His body stumbling. And his spirit’s burdened. But you see, it’s only Friday. Sunday’s comin’.

It’s Friday. The world’s winning. People are sinning. And evil’s grinning.

It’s Friday. The soldiers nail my Saviour’s hands to the cross. They nail my Saviour’s feet to the cross. And then they raise him up next to criminals.

It’s Friday. But let me tell you something, Sunday’s comin’.

It’s Friday. The disciples are questioning. What has happened to their King? And the Pharisees are celebrating that their scheming has been achieved. But they don’t know it’s only Friday. Sunday’s comin’.

It’s Friday. He’s hanging on the cross. Feeling forsaken by His Father. Left alone and dying.
Can nobody save him? Ooooh it’s Friday. But Sunday’s comin’.

It’s Friday. The earth trembles. The sky grows dark. My King yields His spirit. It’s Friday.
Hope is lost. Death has won. Sin has conquered. and Satan’s just a laughin’.

It’s Friday. Jesus is buried. A soldier stands guard. And a rock is rolled into place.

But it’s Friday. It is only Friday. Sunday is a comin’!”

 

This is powerful. It is full of hope. Yes, the world may look like it is Friday, but Sunday is coming. We may feel overcome, dejected, at a complete loss, but Sunday is coming. We may be hearing reports of doom and gloom, but Sunday is coming. Jesus triumphed on Sunday and defeated evil. Please folks, don’t give up before the end!!

We are called to be carriers of hope. Transmitters of hope, peace and joy.

Folks, it is time to return to our purpose. To what we are called to focus on, not on what the world is trying to get our attention with. Let us not become distracted. Let’s lead the way and be the prophetic people we are called to be.

 

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:  Buy some Easter eggs and write/draw letters of encouragement for people from God. Go for a walk and ask God which people’s doorsteps to leave them on.

2. Group Activation: As a group brainstorm creative ways of sharing hope and joy from God with front line workers during this time of Easter preparation and COVID-19. Choose an action from the list and ask God how you are to implement it.

3. Beginner Activation: Read the Easter story and meditate on it. Ask God to show you where you would have been in the story. Spend time with God hearing His heart for you in regards to this. Ask Him if there is an action He would have you do.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you a way of prophetically encouraging your politicians and policy decision-makers this Easter. Then put that into action.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time hearing God’s heart on transformation for people’s mindsets at this time. Ask God what part you have to play. Craft a declaration that you can decree that speaks life. Ask God what else He would like you to release at this time.

Prayer about Coronavirus

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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

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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.

Growing our Faith

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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 Authority in Healing

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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.

Prophesying over your home

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The other day I had an epiphany. I realised that I spent quite a bit of time praying for friends and their stuff especially when they contact me about urgent issues plus various other societal issues but I realised that I wasn’t spending much time praying and prophesying into my own family’s situation. I was often prophesying into other people’s lives but not stewarding well my own family’s prophetic words. Can you relate?

This realisation enables me to reassess my priorities in this regard and put in place some helpful practices.

I also spent time with God brainstorming some simple things for around our home. Various ideas came to mind during this time.

I remembered back to when my friend was redoing her flooring and she asked a number of her close friends to write prophetic words and draw prophetic pictures about what her house was going to become, and she placed these under the new flooring in the house. Whenever we visit, there is such a warm hospitable atmosphere and her home is often full of guests sharing deeply.

Have you physically placed any prophetic words around your home, under painting or flooring, dug them into the garden, placed artistic or creative expressions of them on your wall?

A number of friends have created canvas paintings depicting their children’s prophetic words and placed those canvasses on the children’s bedroom walls. They often refer to them with their kids.

I remembered back to when I first dealt with our original prophetic words and finalised them into a one to two sentence declaration. Sticking these declarations on the bathroom mirror and keeping a copy in my journal, Bible and handbag meant that they were always near where I was if I wanted to grab them out and meditate on them and declare them over myself and my family.

I realised that when I had kept worship music going continually in one part of our house, it changed the atmosphere in that area significantly and brought an amazing spiritual cleansing to that area.

I became acutely aware how we all flourish, but especially children, in an area of praise and encouragement and realised that I could adapt that to speaking positive declarations over my house and garden.

I also downloaded a copy of Arthur Burk’s (www.theslg.com) album “Deliverance for Children”. This is an absolutely revolutionary and transformational method of bringing freedom to people by playing the album quietly of a night in your bedroom (so quietly you can’t hear it but your spirit who never sleeps can) and dealing with any negative stuff in our lives. I highly recommend this album not just for children but for every person. The blessings and freedom that have come out of this for people have been huge. This can help release us from any negative stuff over our lives and aid in helping us become all whom we are created to be, thus being in a position where we can move forward in the process of fulfilling the prophetic words spoken over us.

I realised that it had been awhile since I had deliberately gone into every room in the house and released a blessing in that room and for the activity that usually occurred within each room of the house.

I realised that I needed to be asking God for new insights and prophetic declarations over our teenagers and hubby’s business.

How have you prophesied over your home? Have you discovered an amazing difference?

Start dreaming big with God and then look at ways that you can have ‘memory stones’ of that vision or prophecy by practically doing something in your home to remember often.

Friends, our prophetic gifting is for a myriad of uses. Let’s start using it to change the atmosphere in our own home.

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: Buy a canvas each, or use paper then laminate it, and have the children spend time painting, writing, or drawing something that depicts how God sees them and what He thinks of them. They may also like to add an appropriate Bible verse. Then mount the canvas or laminated sheet on their bedroom wall.

2. Group Activation: Get into groups of 3-5 people. Taking it in turn, focusing on one person at a time, spend time prophesying over each other’s homes and releasing a blessing on them.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend some time brainstorming with God and hearing His heart for your home. Write a 1-2 sentence statement/decree that you can then use to speak over your home. You may also like to write it out and place it somewhere within your home to remind you.

4. Intermediate Activation: Go on a prophetic walk around your street and neighbourhood prophesying over the area, especially any communal land like playgrounds, roads, footpaths etc If there are any houses for sale, prophesy over the selling of the house and new owners etc.

5. Advanced Activation: Find a barren area in your region (if need be, use google earth to see photos etc). Alternatively, you could identify a really rough area full of vandalism, drugs, prostitution etc. Spend time hearing God’s heart for this area and then prophesy and declare into the atmosphere God’s heart for that place.

 

5 Keys to Growing in the Supernatural

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“I want to pray for people and see supernatural miracles”, is an often heard cry. “So I’m going to go to Africa (or the other side of the world) to see all these miracles occur.

Sure, that’s a great intention but is that really the only way of growing in the supernatural?

We went to Mozambique, Africa for 3 months and saw some supernatural miracles. But I had seen more supernatural miracles when I had prayed for people back in Australia before we went. I had prayed for two people with broken bones and the bones were dramatically healed instantaneously. I came back different from Africa though because I had been on a journey of discovering my identity and authority in Jesus Christ.

The essential, I believe, in praying for people and seeing supernatural miracles can be summed up in these 5 Keys:

  • Identity
  • Authority
  • Defining moment
  • Intimacy with Father God, Holy Spirit and Jesus
  • Being obedient and praying for people at every opportunity.

Key 1: Identity

Know your identity – who you are in Christ. Know what the Bible says about you and who you really are. You need to fully know and believe what God and the Bible says and believes about you at all times. A great way to help in this is to have some inner prayer ministry that helps heal inner wounds, especially from our childhood. You have to agree with me that no parent is perfect. No matter how great your parents are, there will be some wounding of some sort. I really believe that it helps to have some prayer ministry on a regular basis (for example annually or every second year) just to make sure that no faulty thinking starts to stick and cause any issues. There are many different types of inner prayer ministry available. A great place to start is to ask around and see which type people recommend. Sozo is a great place to start also.

Key 2: Authority

John 14:12 records Jesus saying “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these”.  Once you have the revelation in your life of your true identity, you can then walk in the authority that Christ has given you. When you read the Bible and see what Jesus did and realise that Jesus said that we would do even greater things, you start to walk in that authority. The authority of seeing healings, miracles, living a pure lifestyle. This is the life we were created for and am meant to be walking in every single day.

Key 3: Defining moment

That moment when you know, without a doubt, that God can heal and will still heal today.

For me, this was in 2010 when my two children were dramatically healed from anaphylaxis. Before this, I had had my mum die of cancer and a very close friend die of a brain haemorrhage. For me, I had allowed these two tragedies to impact my thinking with the belief that God wouldn’t really heal the ‘hard’ things. After my kids were dramatically healed, I could no longer deny that God didn’t heal today with the big and the small and that God actually wanted to heal every disease.

Key 4: Intimacy

We become empty if we don’t keep close and intimate with all of the Trinity – Father God, Holy Spirit and Jesus. This intimacy and hearing and knowing and sensing and seeing God and what He is up to and is doing is so important. We don’t want to be running ahead or falling behind where God is and what He is up to. We need to be intimate with God and clearly hearing His thoughts and methods on what He wants us to do and how He wants us to participate in each part of life, especially in the supernatural.

Key 5: Obedience with taking every opportunity

A major part of growing in the supernatural is trying, practicing and doing. If we are never ever going to step out and take risks in the supernatural, then we can’t expect to grow. If you see someone sick or injured, immediately ask God “What do you want me to do?” or “How do you want me to pray for healing for them?” Then do it!! Do not expect to pray and see people raised from the dead if you have never prayed for a dead person before to come back to life. Take every opportunity. That was why we took our 7 and 10 year old kids with us when we were invited to the City Morgue to pray for a dead person. We took the opportunity to pray. No we didn’t see that person come back to life here on earth. We have recently taken another opportunity to pray for two more dead people. Still no resurrection here on earth but that has only resolved in us a determination to pray for the next dead person and see them come back to life on earth.

I would love to hear your thoughts on how you are growing in the supernatural. Please feel free to comment below.

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: Gather a number of items of clothing that denote royal identity. Allow time and space for everyone to dress up in the clothing and use the royal items whilst decreeing and declaring statements of identity over them. Have statements on paper that the kids can read out as well eg “I am God’s royal princess”, “I have authority to pray for the sick and to see them healed.” “I am God’s royal son and have access to everything that Jesus had access to.” “God loves me and has given me power to prayer for people and see my prayers answered.”

2. Group Activation: Ask people to partner up and to share with their partner a critical are of their life that they need a miracle in. Ask everyone to spend a few minutes waiting on God for how He wants them to pray. Then change the prayer to a decree and declaration and prophesy into their partner’s life about the miracle.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend some time reading about Jesus in the Gospels and the miracles that He did. Ask God to show you someone who needs a miracle in their life. Ask God to show you what to pray for them and how to go about seeing them receive their miracle.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to impress upon your heart a medical condition that He would like you to have authority over first eg praying for people with cancer and seeing them healed, seeing broken bones healed, eyesight restored etc. Go after that condition. Spend time with God praying over that condition and seeking Him about it. Write out a prophetic word that you can regularly decree and declare re that physical condition.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask a friend with similar interests and desires to grow in the supernatural to deliberately go with you to a place where desperately needy people hang out. Ask God to show you what and when to say things and start conversations with people. Ask these folk if they have a physical need that you can pray for them for a supernatural answer. Then pray with them and be a blessing to them.

Renewing your Mind – Living from a Place of Victory (part 6)

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When I first had my children, I really felt God impress on me to live my life with Romans 12:1-2 being paramount.

In the Message version it says in Romans 12:1-2 “Place Your Life Before God – So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

These verses and meditating on them, have helped bring a peace and joy to my life and that of my family. We have tried to base our whole thinking around what is of God versus what is of our culture. The NIV writes Romans 12:2 like this: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This led us to home school our children, an uncommon thing in Australia. I realise that home schooling is not for every family, but all too often people do not even ask God what form of schooling their children should have or who should have the major role in educating and indoctrinating their children.

Several principles I have found that have helped me tremendously in renewing my mind are:

  1. Whatever we focus on, grows.

Thus, if we focus on negative things, they will grow. Thus, be careful what you think about. Also, be aware that what you put into your mind, or feed your mind, will also reap fruit. Deliberately focus on the good. I am constantly amazed by people who continually say negative or depressing things. There is so much good in this world to focus on instead. Thus, be intentional what you look at, read, listen to.

 

                              I challenge you to go on a media fast for a week to a fortnight. Soak instead in God’s Word and see if there is any change in your circumstances and your thought life after the media fast.

 

  1. Change your thoughts

What we believe in our hearts not only determines our behaviour but it directs our lives. Check out Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he”. Deliberately change your thoughts to positive thoughts.

The key to personal transformation is to change the way you think; to renew your mind (Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 10:5, 1 John 5:4).

2 Corinthians 10:5 talks about “take captive every thought”. Stop and capture every thought that flitters through your mind that is not of God. Immediately take it captive and get rid of it.

I like to think of a 3 colour traffic light system with my thought life. Very rarely now will I be anxious, worried, sad or depressed. I classify those emotions as the colour red in the traffic light system. I am generally very positive and upbeat – thus green traffic light. I identify, for me, some things that raise an amber warning light in the traffic light system and that prompts me to immediately go back to God to keep in the green. I immediately take them captive and get rid of them. What are your ‘amber’ warning lights?

  1. Meditate on Scripture. Play Christian songs with lyrics that speak life.

Speak life over yourself. Write out a declaration and speak it out over yourself on a regular basis. Speak the Bible over yourself. Pray it over your life. Bless your spirit with words from the Bible.

  1. Don’t second guess or keep asking.

So many times, I know people have heard from God but they don’t like the answer so they waste precious time by continually asking God for (hopefully) a different answer. This does not lead to a peaceful mind.

  1. Watch your words – speak life. Be careful of what you say. Are you speaking words that bring life or words that bring death? Our words have the power to create the outcome. (see blog post from June 2nd, 2018 – https://www.unlockingthegold.com/what-we-say-living-from-a-place-of-victory-part-4/)
  1. Memorial stones

I find that it helps me to stay focused if I am beginning something new to have reminders around the place. Just like the Israelites had the memorial stones (Joshua 4 – stones from the Jordan River that reminded them of what God had done for them), I keep reminders at home for me. Little momentoes that remind me constantly of God’s goodness, kindness and love. These momentoes encourage me to turn my thoughts to Christ, to stay positive.

7. Guard your Peace

Be aware of living in a state of total peace so that when you come against any feeling that is not from this ‘peaceful’ state, you are immediately alerted in your spirit. Guard your peace. Do whatever you have under your control to keep your spirit at peace.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

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

1. Children / Families Activation: Go around your family/table and ask God to show you a supernatural superhero power that God has given to each family member. Encourage each person in their own superhero supernatural power.

2. Group Activation: In preparation, write an encouraging single word on a piece of paper eg fun, June, special, warm, gold, Holy, grace, laughter, September etc. Write enough different single words so that there is at least one piece of paper for each person expected to be present. During the group time, spread out the pieces of paper and ask people to choose one piece of paper each. Then ask them to find someone the word applies to prophetically and speak a prophetic word over them about that characteristic.

3. Beginner Activation: Keep track of every thought and feeling today, pulling yourself up when you start to feel, say or think anything negative. Capture those thoughts and change them to the opposite. Deliberately try to choose positive and thankfulness instead. Find someone who appears down and not cheerful and give them a sincere prophetic word.

4. Intermediate Activation: Find a house in your neighbourhood with an unkempt front yard. Walk past and spend time blessing the house, the occupants and the owners. Try and do this on a regular basis and take note of any changes.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God how you can be part of the response to your country’s refugee situation. Prophesy over the situation, whether your country or the wider world situation for refugees.

Changing Atmospheres – Living from a Place of Victory (part 5)

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Several years ago, my daughter and I were having a drink with a lady whilst waiting for my husband and son to join us. After a good twenty minutes, we both were looking at one another in amazement. The woman was so negative. We were both feeling very uncomfortable because everything we said was turned into a negative complaint. The woman stated that it was such a cold, dreary day. She then went on to say that the café would probably forget her drink (which they did). She then said that the coffee would probably be cold, which it was. Everything she said was so negative.

Suddenly I remembered that we can change or ‘shift’ the atmosphere. As a family we had recently listened to a CD by Dawna DeSilva from Bethel on this topic but we hadn’t yet ‘tried’ it out. Very quietly so that only my daughter and I heard, I said, “Spirit of negativity I see you and I choose not to partner with you. Instead, I release a spirit of joy.”

Instantly this woman stopped complaining and being negative. The atmosphere changed significantly and instantaneously. My daughter and I were gobsmacked. We both realised the results were amazing.

I believe it is important to teach our children that they are responsible for their attitude and the atmosphere they carry and also how they can simply change the atmosphere around them by speaking a few simple words.

We are spiritual beings and the spirit within us has power to change the atmosphere where we are. I have personally used this a number of times in my work situation where I have been nursing a patient who is really upset and the atmosphere will completely change. It is usually so powerful that all my colleagues will notice it and comment on the change with amazement.

Friends, this is a powerful weapon. Whenever you notice an atmosphere that isn’t of God, use this method to change it. Whenever you walk into a room and feel an extremely strong emotion that isn’t you or you didn’t have a few minutes ago and there seems to be no apparent reason, try this method. It works.

An example is friends were walking through the casino from the carpark to the restaurant and the woman suddenly felt a strong sexual urge overwhelm her. She was completely baffled but tried this strategy and the strong sexual urge immediately left her. She had encountered a spirit in the atmosphere that was not of her but had impacted her as she walked through that area.

I encourage you to try it this week and then teach your children how they can also do it. When I teach kids how to do this, I usually frame it as saying, “fear go, peace come”.

I taught it to a Sunday School class last year and that very afternoon at lunchtime, one of the kids was in his kitchen helping his mum who was stressed and the atmosphere became quite tense. The mum later shared how her son said, “I learnt something today. I can’t remember what to say. Oh yes. Stress go, peace come.” The mum shared how they both noticed an immediate change.

Try it when you next encounter something negative “in the air”. It may even be your own children being grumpy, dishonest, defiant etc. You have spiritual authority over the situation, so just quietly say, “I see you spirit of…. and I choose not to partner with you and instead I release the spirit of…..(the opposite)”. See what happens.

If you would like to hear a full teaching on this, Dawna DeSilva from Bethel Church has a  fantastic teaching audio on ‘shifting atmospheres’. (http://store.ibethel.org/p4003/shifting-atmospheres)

Let me know how you go.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

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

1. Children / Families Activation: Cut shapes of fruit out of paper. Write negative emotions & characteristics eg fear, anger, bullying, lying, on those pieces of ‘fruit’. Stick to a wall. Get a nerf gun and take it in turns to ‘shoot’ the fruit. When you ‘shoot’ the fruit, you then can turn the fruit over and write on the other side the opposite emotion. Practice saying eg “Fear go, peace come”.

2. Group Activation: Play “Prophetic UNO”. It works best in groups of 6-8 people. Get a pack of UNO cards. One at a time, turn over the top card. Follow the instructions eg if a red card, then you give a prophetic word to the person on your left. This is most effective when you play it quickly ie people need to start giving a prophetic word within 20-30 seconds of turning over the card.

UNO Prophecy Instructions

                     RED            – you give a prophetic word to the person on your left

                     GREEN       – you give a prophetic word to the person on your right

                     BLUE          – you give a prophetic word to the person opposite

                     YELLOW    – you choose who to give a prophetic word to in the group

                     DRAW 2    – choose 2 people to give you a prophetic word

                     DRAW 4    – choose 4 people to give you a prophetic word

                     WILD CARD – Choose whether you give a prophetic word to someone or choose someone to give you one.

3. Beginner Activation: Take notice of the everyone whom you meet who is negative today. Practice changing the atmosphere by saying quietly into the atmosphere “Negativity go, peace and positivity come”. Watch and see the change.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight 3 articles of clothing to you – the colour, type etc. Watch for a person wearing those 3 articles. Be ready to give them a prophetic word to encourage, strengthen or comfort them. Remember, you can give a prophetic word that doesn’t have “christian” language in it.

5. Advanced Activation: Go to an area of your town which is often in the news for negative reasons. Ask God to show you His heart for this area and the people within it. Prophecy over this area for a change towards Kingdom values.

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

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

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

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

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

 

                         Authority is delegated power.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

                         But she persevered.

 

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

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

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

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

Feel free to comment below with your thoughts.

 

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

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

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

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

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

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

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