This week, we are going to do something quite different and we think you will find this exercise not only challenging but also exciting. For a number of weeks now, we have been honing our skill in quieting our spirits, listening, and identifying the Voice of the Holy Spirit. This has been for a purpose since in any situation, the Lord already knows in advance what He will say to someone when an opportunity is made available for one of His children to become a "spout" for the Word of the Lord to this person. All the "spout" has to do is "plug in" and listen to what the Lord wants to say and then repeat what he or she hears the Lord say. It is not necessary for the "spout" to actually know the person.

Let us rephrase this another way. God knows both you (the "spout") and "Sue" (the intended recipient of the Lord's words). God wants to speak to Sue. You do not know Sue but the Lord is planning to use you to speak for Him to Sue. Can God speak to you His thoughts about Sue before you actually know Sue? Yes, He certainly can. How is this? God can speak to you, can He not? In the same way that you have listened in other activations thus far, you will listen to the thoughts of the Lord this time and then speak what you receive to "Sue" when your turn comes. The situation may be different but the process is essentially the same.

As we move into the final weeks of this course, we are going to begin to think more and more of how our practice has begun to prepare us to be used in real life situations. After all, why are you taking this course? Is it not to hear and know Him more fully, and to be obedient to His desires and words to you? Consider this situation in the light of our brief explanations above. You are going about your daily affairs and the Lord's presence comes to you and you (having been trained) recognize that He is speaking to you. He says, "I am going to have you meet someone today who needs some real assurance that I love them and I am going to use you. I will witness to your spirit when this person comes to you. Tell them, "the Lord loves you greatly and He is going to help you in your situation." You see this person ("Sue") break out in tears not because of the greatness of your words, but because the Holy Spirit spoke to her spirit and the person knew that this was a living word to them right when they needed it. God could then open the door for further ministry to this person. We all hear about these types of ministry situations, don't we.

This week, in a safe practice environment, we are going to speak to "Sue." Further explanation will follow in the next section.

DESCRIPTION:

This week we are going to receive thoughts from the Lord for just one person. We have already seen how God speaks personally as well as corporately. Just as we have been learning to share thoughts from the Lord with ourselves, others within a group, and corporately, this time we will again address an individual.

As you enter the time of "listening" for the Voice of the Lord this week, ask Him to speak whatever He would speak for the benefit of "Sue" in your group. Your word should follow the pattern of strengthening, encouragement and comfort according to 1 Cor. 14:3. Since this is a "safe environment" for practice and learning, we remind all of this basic admonition again since this is not a time for any corrective or judgmental words. As we have said in past lessons, if you feel you hear something that is corrective or judgmental, please go back to the Lord and ask Him for another word.

Here is what we will do. The group leader is going to choose one of you to be "Sue" [for any of you who are actually named Sue, you may just get doubly blessed before this time is over - J]. What is unique is that none of the group will know who "Sue" is - including "Sue." The members of the group will go through the usual steps and when the time comes for the words to be spoken, all the members need to listen very carefully to the content of the words and see if the words seem to minister to them. In most situations, the person chosen to be "Sue" will know who they are even before they are identified.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this week's activation is to give you an opportunity to better understand how to see with the "Eyes of Your Heart" (Eph. 1:18). Being deprived of your natural senses will serve to help you really focus on what you see, hear and know/feel in your spirit, rather than your natural mind.

It has been very interesting to those of us who are involved in training on a consistent basis to observe that people of all levels of maturity in the prophetic consistently deliver more accurate words when they are deprived of natural knowledge. This may seem difficult to accept but it has proven to be true. In these situations, the only way to receive is to receive from the Spirit and not rely on our natural mind. Because of this, the words are usually more accurate at all levels. If you feel any hesitancy in this exercise, just remember all we have said before regarding the safety of a practice environment, the fact that it is OK to make a mistake and also that the more you rely on drawing from the Spirit, the easier it will become. Phrased another way, by reason of use, you will improve and mature in your gift.

This is the first of two activations where we will be drawing wholly upon the Spirit so as you come to the time of listening, just focus on the Lord and what He says and you will find this time to be a real blessing and a faith builder.

As we have said before, you will discover that receiving a Word from the Lord is quite easy once you just relax and rest in the faith that God is faithful to communicate and that He usually wants to speak to you more than you want to hear. He will then be faithful to minister to the needs that are on His heart and you will be used as a conduit for His power.

Note for local group leaders: You might want to consider taping these words as they are given in the group and then transcribe them and make the transcription or tape available to your local pastor.

STEP BY STEP PROCESS OF THIS ACTIVATION:

Note For Group Leaders:

For this exercise, you are to select a person from your group to be the "Sue" referred to in this exercise. Make the selection before you actually begin the exercise, but do not tell anyone who it is.

Or if you perfer, you can select "Sue" blindly.. so that you don't know who "Sue" is either. To do this, write out all of the names of the people in your group on slips of paper and put them in a hat. Draw one out before the activation begins but do not look at it.. This way "Sue" is selected, but no one other than God knows who "Sue" actually is. Then at the end of the exercise after all of the words have been given, you can look at the paper to see who "Sue" really was.

1. Understand That We Will Share From Christ Within Us

   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.

2. Stir Yourself Up Spiritually

   How do we stir ourselves up?

   • First, be convinced that it is the Lord's will for every believer to move in the Gifts of the Spirit. Next, be persuaded that you have at least 1 of the 9 gifts. Eph. 4:7-8 tells us: "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'."

   • Realize that no believer is perfect and it is OK to make a mistake. Another look at Jesus' disciples will prove this fact as we saw in our initial teaching material.

   • Just know that we all learn by doing.

   • Praying in the Spirit (or English) can act as a catalyst to receive the mind of Christ so that our human spirit can receive thoughts, impressions, pictures, etc. from the Holy Spirit. Above all, focus your attention on the Lord.

   • We activate the gifts by faith and grace, therefore it is our responsibility.

3. Sanctification - Activation Prayer

   Pray this prayer with your group as you begin:

   Dear Lord, in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, I come before Your throne. I am washed by the blood. Christ lives within me. Not just in part, but in my whole being. I bring every thought of my mind and soul into captivity to the mind of Christ. I will be open to be led by the Holy Spirit to receive a prophetic word from You for someone in my group. I will gladly share just what you show me, without adding my own interpretation to it. I will not doubt it nor question it, I'll just be willing to give it. I am a believer, and I expect to receive. I thank You for giving me a word of knowledge from the throne. 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.

4. Leaders Pray A Prayer Of Covering/Protection

   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.

5. Now, Be Silent And Listen, Look And Feel

   One of the members of the group should agree to be the lead off person and go first. Now relax, this is going to be fun, and it will continue to help you "tune in" to the Holy 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".

   Again, here is an explanation of these different modes.

   • If you are a "seer", you will see pictures in your mind readily. These pictures may require interpretation. When you give a prophetic word, you allow these pictures to guide you along a theme and speak what you see in the order you see it. In this manner, the Holy Spirit can give you a "flow" by a series of pictures. Interpretation can and does play a role in accurately speaking to the series of pictures.

   • If you are a "hearer", you will "hear" what the Spirit says. This will not usually be an audible voice but for some of you it could be - on rare occasion. Normally, you just feel like you are hearing something. In actuality, you are not hearing anything audible but you still feel as if you are hearing what you receive. Once you "hear", you simply share what you hear the Spirit saying to you for the individual (God knows who the person is, even if you don't.)

   • If you are a "knower / feeler", you just seem to know something and it feels right but you could not explain to anyone how you know.. you just know! It is like a built in sense of "what is." If you are a knower, you will recognize this pattern. If you are a feeler, you may actually feel something. For instance, God may give you a word of knowledge of a physical healing He wants to do by allowing you to briefly feel in your own body the condition that God desires to heal in another. This is called a "physical word of knowledge."

6. Now, Give Your Word According To The Spirit's Leading

   This is the doing part for which we have prepared ourselves. Now is the time, one person at a time, to speak specifically what you receive from the Holy Spirit being cautious not to add any of your own personal interpretation. (If you are a seer, ask the Lord to help you with this from now on in these activations since there will be a need to interpret somewhat the "flow" of mental pictures.)

   We also want to re-state our caution from before: "God does not usually give us judgmental, negative, harsh, corrective, or directive words when we are just learning to move in the prophetic. For the scope of these exercises, these types of words will be STRICTLY OFF LIMITS. If you believe you receive one of these types of words during the activation exercise, assume you have heard wrong and go back to the Lord and ask Him for a different word.

   From our original purpose paragraph, you will be looking for a prophetic word that will connect with the intended person. This activation will allow us to see with the "eyes of our heart" (Eph. 1:18) rather than our natural eyes.

   Continue with each person giving their words until all have had the opportunity to speak. The group leader should then ask for the "chosen person" to identify themselves. See if the person who identifies themselves is not the person who was secretly chosen by the leader. As has been the case in past weeks, many in the group will receive both individual as well as corporate ministry.

7. Follow-Up

   As the members of your group share what they receive, you might want to write down the things which speak to you individually as well as the things you strongly identify with in the corporate setting and discuss them after all have had an opportunity to share what they received. The group can then take the opportunity to pray over these things and see the Lord minister to the needs that were identified corporately.

APPLICATION

As you become more and more proficient in using the "eyes of your heart" rather than your natural mind, you will be able to respond readily and accurately in most any situation where God desires and chooses to use you to speak to someone. If you have the opportunity to minister to someone you do not know well by phone (or email or irc or icq or aol chatroom), this activation will help you. For those of you who desire to be used powerfully in prophetic evangelism, you are being equipped even now for this.