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Prophetic Activations – fun, simple, and important.

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My biggest growth in the prophetic has come from me practicing prophesying. The most fun, though, has come from doing prophetic activations in a group. It is a great way to build community and, since I value community, I thrive on this.

A prophetic activation is an exercise where you practice and try to develop in the skill of hearing God’s voice for someone else.

I believe that prophetic activations are important in helping us to grow in the prophetic – both for adults and kids. That is why I always include 5 prophetic activations at the end of each of my blogs – one each under kids/families, groups, beginner, intermediate and advanced. Please feel free to do as few or as many as you wish. (The groupings are just a guideline.) For families, I encourage you to set aside one dinner time each week where you can practice prophesying over each other or doing the prophetic activations attached to my blogs.

I also believe that prophetic activations usually work better when they are:

  • fun
  • simple
  • quick

They provide energy and inspiration for group dynamics. Most times they can be done in pairs, sometimes in larger groups. It is also important, I believe, to ask for short feedback or a quick testimony at the end of the game.

Finding a partner:

I try and be creative at getting group members into pairs or small groups when doing an activation. When you are creative with this and people have fun, without it taking too much time or taking the focus away from doing the activations, then it helps relax people and gets them feeling easier about trying new activations. After each question, I get people to find a new partner using a different method, so have a few methods of matching people up ready.

  • I might use ‘find someone born in the same month’ or ‘find someone with the same colour socks on as yourself’ etc.
  • I sometimes use coloured lollies that stain the tongue and I give the lollies out and then people need to find a person with the same colour on their tongue as themselves.
  • I have used the chocolate clinkers and people bite into their clinker and find someone who has the same colour clinker interior as yourself.
  • I usually have a pack of cards / UNO cards handy and give out cards to people so find ‘a person with the same UNO card as you, or same number card with a pack of cards’ etc.
  • A favourite of mine is using a set of animal cards I made up using pictures of animals taken off the internet. I then laminated these cards so I can use them again. I give out the cards and get people to make the noise of the animal that is on the front of their card. They then have to find a partner who is making the same noise as themselves.

Some activations for pairs:

One the group is divided up into pairs, then give everyone a question to ask God about their partner. Give them a limited time to get an answer. After 30 seconds or a minute at the most, get people to share their answer with their partner.

  • God, if my partner was a tree, what tree would they be and why?
  • God, if my partner was a vehicle, what vehicle would they be and why?
  • God, if my partner was some confectionary, what would they be and why?
  • God, what do you see my partner clothed in and why?
  • God, if my partner was something in a supermarket, what would they be and why?
  • God, if a book was written about my partner, what would the title of the book be?
  • God, if my partner starred in a movie, what would the movie be about?
  • God, if my partner was an animal, what animal would they be and why?
  • God, if my partner was a person in a hospital, who would they be ie their role, and why?
  • God, if my partner was something at a playground, what would they be and why or, alternatively, where would they be on the playground and why?

Key points to remember:

As with any prophetic activations, there are a couple of key points to emphasise.

  • Make sure you only speak what is encouraging, edifying or comforting.
  • God speaks back to us instantly, like a friend on the phone. We don’t ask our friend a question and then have to wait 2 minutes to get a reply. We get an answer immediately.
  • A key here is the ‘first thought’ principle. The first thought that flies through your head when you ask God a question, capture that thought. If it is encouraging, edifying or comforting, then go with that thought.
  • God loves questions, so ask God some more questions about the thought that came to you to find out more. Eg why did you show me that God?

Pass the parcel:

Several years in a row for our prophetic group breakup, I organised a game of ‘Pass the Parcel’. I modelled it on the children’s party game. It was a huge hit and we continue to do it annually as it was so successful in both enjoyment and stretching everyone. Since there were about 40 people, I wrapped up 5 different parcels to be passed at the same time. (I wanted maximum effect and practice from the time!)

In every layer of the parcel, I placed an item I had bought from either the supermarket or the $2/discount shop or scavenged from around home. Items included things such as:

  • pen
  • highlighter
  • torch
  • Princess birthday candle
  • toy army men with parachutes attached
  • bath toy – rubber ducky
  • soap
  • packet of mixed lollies
  • chocolate advent calendar
  • a very sharp knife
  • balloon
  • bottle of bubbles to blow
  • a map of the world
  • a can of spam
  • a teabag
  • etc

No item was repeated and there were 9 layers each parcel. Creativity is encouraged so walk around your supermarket and see what catches your eye. I am always astounded at the variety of items I wrap in the parcels and how God uses them to speak to people.

As the music played, the parcels were passed around the circle. When the music stopped, the people holding the parcels had to unwrap the next layer of paper and find the object. They then had to ask God 2 questions – “Who do I give this present to?” and “Why?” They had only 20 – 30 seconds to get their answers. They would then go up to the person God had highlighted and give them the present and say the reason why as a prophetic word. We didn’t go with popular culture and ‘make it fair’ so that everyone got a go of giving and receiving. It was just whoever had the parcel when the music stopped gave the present and prophetic word to the person who they felt God highlighted. Some people received several presents and prophetic words and some received none. The point of the game was to realise that you can see a seemingly insignificant object and use it as a basis for a prophetic word.

Prophetic UNO:

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. If you have more than 6-8 people, divide into groups with a pack of UNO cards for each group.

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.

Duck, duck, goose:

Play prophetic ‘Duck, duck, goose’. If it is a group of children, sit on the floor in a circle. If adults, arrange chairs in a circle and ask everyone to sit on a chair. Ask everyone to close their eyes. Walk around behind the group and ‘tap’ one person on the head (or shoulder if more culturally appropriate). This person will know they are the receiver. You will also know but no-one else should be aware since everyone would have had their eyes closed. Ask a leader to be a scribe. Ask everyone else to ask God what He would like to say to this (unknown) person with the scribe taking notes. After 5-6 people have shared, ask the receiver to raise their hand, thus they were the person whom the prophetic words were said about. Pass the written notes to that person for encouragement. Then repeat the process taping someone else on the head/shoulder.

Musical Chairs:

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

Prophetic Tag:

Choose a person to be ‘the tagger’. They stand in the middle of the room and everyone goes to the other end. These people have to try to get to the other side of the room without being tagged by the person in the centre (the tagger). If someone is tagged, that person has to give ‘the tagger’ (the person who tagged them) a prophetic word. They then become ‘the tagger’ and the previous ‘tagger’ joins the rest of the group trying to cross the room without being tagged. If you have a large group, consider having several people in the middle being ‘taggers’.

Prophetic Ping Pong:

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

Lucky Dip Bag:

Have a bag that you can’t see through and place a number of items in the bag. Get people to take turns to put their hand in the bag, choose an item and pull it out. They then have 30-60 seconds to ask God who in the group they need to give the item to and why. They then give the item to that person and share how that item relates to them as a prophetic word.

Blindfolded Lucky Dip:

Beforehand, place a number of various supermarket objects in a bag. Pair up everyone and blindfold one person in each pair. This person places their hand in the bag and selects an item. Based on what that item feels like and reminds them of, get each blindfolded person to give a prophetic word over the person standing in front of them. At the end, ask each person who received a prophetic word to give feedback to their blindfolded person based on how accurate and ‘weighty’ the prophetic word felt and whether or not it raised any emotions within.

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: Find up some magazines with pictures in them that you can cut out. Glue and blank paper will also be needed. Ask each person to think of someone and then find a picture or some words from the magazines that God highlights to them that will communicate God’s heart to that person. Let people cut out the pictures and words and arrange on the piece of paper. Then give the piece of paper to that person.

2. Group Activation: Get people into pairs. As you play a piece of instrumental music, ask God to highlight to everyone something from the music as a starting point for a prophecy over their partner. Ask people to share with their partner.

3. Beginner Activation: Grab a cup of tea or coffee. As you do, ask God to highlight something about your drink to you. Then ask God to show you how this relates to a prophetic word to release over a family member. Share it (the prophetic word) with your family member.

4. Intermediate Activation: Look up the latest movie releases and ask God to highlight one of the movie titles to you. Ask God who this relates to prophetically and why. Contact that person and share with them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight a major disaster in your state or country. Ask God to show you His perspective on this and what He would love your part to be in helping or prophesying good over the situation.

Helping my kids hear from God part 3

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

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

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

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

You and your kids can do this as well.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

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

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

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

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

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

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