Each week of this course will begin with a particular teaching designed to help build the faith for the activation which will follow. Now that we have covered the qualifications to minister and have seen that as saved, redeemed, Blood washed saints, we are all qualified to be ministers of Christ, we will now move on to the Activation for Week 1.
Before we begin, we need to take a moment and lay some groundwork for the activation process since we will repeat this general approach in the activation exercise each week. The exercise will be different each week but the approach will remain much the same.
Some of you may be asking - what exactly is an activation? An activation is a process whereby we challenge ourselves with some truth from scripture to be able to receive the grace to then do what the Bible says we can do. Grace is God's divine unmerited enablement. Another way of saying this is that God gives us His ability as a gift even when we don't deserve it. It is not something we work for but is a free gift that we lay hold of by releasing our FAITH. WE DON'T HAVE TO FEEL IT, GET GOOSE BUMPS, OR STIR UP OUR FLESH in order to be used in the Gifts of the Spirit. It only takes scriptural truth, God's grace and a releasing of our faith.
Now, this "truth-grace-faith" process is a very important principle that occurs all through scripture. Here is an example of how it works in receiving the Gift of Eternal Life:
In this course, the above process will likewise hold true except that we are dealing primarily with 3 of the gifts - prophecy, the word of knowledge, and the word of wisdom, the gifts that are primarily in use when someone prophesies. And while we are discussing the Gifts of the Spirit, activating the gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues, discerning of spirits, faith, healing and miracles are all done in like manner. The gifts are different but the process is the same. Once this process is understood, much will open up in the use of the Gifts.
The purpose of each activation is to bring about a stretching and "flexing" of your spiritual gifts in a safe, practice mode and to demonstrate that God is faithful to His word and that He has indeed given us divine unmerited ability to operate in the Gifts of the Spirit.
Now that we have begun to lay our foundation, there are several scriptures that will provide our "truths" for this week.
1 Cor. 12 (NIV)
The above scripture is the revealed will of god that we have a manifestation (gift in operation) of the Holy Spirit for the common good of the Body of Christ. The only thing each of us needs to know is how much and what portion of these gifts is for us to individually receive and manifest. All born again, Spirit filled believers have been given the Gifts of the Holy Spirit but some will manifest special divine enablements more than others. Jesus has willed the Gifts to the Body of Christ but the Holy Spirit still divides and distributes to individuals as He wills based upon the Christians desire and ability to receive and manifest.
Now, as we move to the "doing" phase, please keep the above truths in mind and allow your faith to be stirred up by them.
It is interesting to note that Cindy Jacobs discovered her prophetic abilities in this type of activation. She describes her initial experiences prophetically praying for people in her church in her book entitled "The Voice Of God" (ISBN 0-8307-1773-0) and how this led to her recognizing her unique prophetic gifting. Some of you will also discover your giftings and callings as a result of these exercises over the following weeks.
Prophetic prayer is simply allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us in what we pray over someone as He gives us the thoughts and information in our spirit for and about that person. As sons (and daughters) of God, this should be our goal anyway according to Romans 8:13-14.
You will address your partner, join hands (or whatever and however your electronic vehicle allows) and then pray for your partner with no parameters on what type of prayer. The person praying is asked to simply be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and to bless their partner in the prayer.
To allow the participant the opportunity to develop a sensitivity to the "voice" of the Holy Spirit while practicing in a format that should be familiar to most Christians - that of prayer. The goal is to develop a relaxed attitude and a confidence in perceiving the "leading" of the Holy Spirit in prayer for another person.
Since we are all saved, we have Christ living within us. Let's allow him to minister to us, through us, and to and through our brother or sister in Christ. 1 Peter 4:10 says,
"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms". We want to be good stewards of God's grace so let's be willing to share Christ within us with our brother or sister.
How many of you believe the Holy Spirit knows what your individual needs are? We are not going to prophesy but we are going to extend our faith to believe that the Holy Spirit will lead us according to Romans 8:26-27 as we pray for each other.
How do we stir ourselves up?
"But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."
Pray this prayer with your partner as you begin:
Father, In Jesus name, I am cleansed by the Blood of Jesus and therefore I am righteous before You and the Holy Spirit dwells within me. He is in my thought patterns because I present my whole body as a living sacrifice, alive, holy and acceptable to God. I bring every thought of my mind and my soul into captivity to the mind of Christ. I will be open to be led by Christ living within me as I pray. I will be bold to speak those things which You wish to have me pray and I will not doubt or question but rather just pray. I am a believer in You Lord Jesus. I have prayed in faith and now I will expect to receive. Amen.
This prayer releases people from any guilt, fear, condemnation and sense of unworthiness. Since fear and feeling unworthy are the two most hindering factors to people moving in the mind of Christ, this brings a release.
The purpose of this short and specific prayer is to bind any hindering or religious spirits and to release faith and anointing. Feel free to use whatever words you choose for this but it does not have to be long and involved.
One of the partners should agree to be the lead off person and go first. Now relax because this is going to be fun and it will begin to show you how to "tune in" to the Spirit. Once you go silent, give yourself about 45 - 60 seconds and during this time, look and see what pictures form in your minds eye (the eyes of your heart), listen to what you may "hear" in your Spirit and pay attention to what sense you may have in your "knower". Now let's try to briefly explain these different modes.
This is the doing part we for which we have prepared ourselves. Now is the time to, one partner at a time, pray for your partner and remember to pray ONLY what you feel you are being led to pray by the Holy Spirit. Remember, we are not trying to prophesy in this exercise but simply pray a focused prayer. As the content of the prayer begins to "connect" with the realities in the life of your partner, he or she will know. This is a most encouraging thing to see that the Holy Spirit will lead all of us this way.
It is very useful to have your partner help you know what you prayed that brought to them the benefits of the prophetic - specifically strengthening, encouraging and comfort according to 1 Cor. 14:3 (NIV). This feedback will encourage both the "pray-er and the pray-ee" to see how God will honor His word and minister to both people involved.
This exercise is best done with multiple partners. Switch partners and repeat steps 6-8 with the new partner. When you have completed with the new partner (if there are enough people in your group), switch partners again and repeat steps 6-8 with this new partner.
Can you see how this Spirit led prayer will renovate your prayer life and the prayers you pray for others?