I’ve been thinking about prophecy recently and trying to break it down, so that it doesn’t sound inaccessible to the everyday Christian. God clearly says through Paul in His word, that we must continue to desire, want and go after spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy, which is the gift of speaking what God has revealed.

But how do we realistically make this happen? And what has to be done so that the church uses this ability more often than it currently is? When I look at prophecy, I see a four step process and recognise some of those steps need more practice than others to make the overall outcome the best it can be.

Step 1

I think the first step is to position ourselves to listen. What does that mean? Well, for me it’s the hardest step because of all the noise and distractions we’ve come to think of as normal in our lives. If you’re like me, you need to find somewhere quiet 90% of the time and spend a couple of seconds de-cluttering your thoughts. It’s nothing fancy, it’s just practical…I mean, if you were talking to any one of your friends, you would naturally not be thinking about other things whilst in a conversation with them. And it’s the same with God – as we learn to listen to Him, I believe we get better at being natural with it. One day I hope to be at the place where I’m able to hear God speaking even in the middle of the noisiest crowd.

Step 2

Once we’ve done all we can to open ourselves up to what God has to say, step two is the actual receiving revelation bit. And what does that mean? Well, it’s the same as a conversation…if you sit down to listen to someone speak, you expect to hear them say something to you, right? And if you’re not listening properly to what that person is saying, you miss bits out, right? For me, it’s the same with God – I need to be concentrating and not distracted and expectant to hear to make sure I understand the words God has said to me.

Step 3

So, you’ve listened, you’ve heard and understood, and God wants you to impact the people or person the words are for, so guess what you have to now do. This bit for me takes practice, because God often gives us a sense of what He wants to say and we then we need to translate what we feel into human language, so that it means something to the audience we’re speaking to. Often God does give us exact words…I guess it’s really really important to never limit God because there’s an infinite amount of ways He can speak.

Step 4

And finally, the important conclusion to prophecy is when the audience of one or many have received the words you’ve spoken and been impacted in some way by their meaning. At this point we can encourage the person or people to respond in prayer right there and then or in their own time.

Prophecy is there to encourage, build up and help people turn to God, and we should always have that as our aim when we ask God to use us. What do you think? Do you find prophecy difficult? Why do you think that is?

Hey all, this is our brand new resource that we’ve wanted to provide for you for a while and it is finally HERE We’re so excited with what’s going on in our midst and where God is taking us and we hope this will become a good place for you to ask questions and to occupy your bedtime reading. Be blessed in Jesus’ name and be encouraged by the verse below:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly”
Matthew 11:28-30