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 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. If you are born of the Spirit you have the Holy Spirit. He brings His gifts with Him and they are available for your use. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all." 1 Cor 12:4-7.

• Realize that no believer is perfect and it is OK to make a mistake. This is a training environment and we love one another.. (right?)

• Just know that we all learn by doing.

• Praying in the Spirit can also help build up your faith and act as a catalyst for the flow of the river of the Spirit out of your "inner most being" (John 7:28,29) and prepare you to receive the mind of Christ so that your human spirit can receive thoughts, impressions, pictures, etc. from the Holy Spirit.

• We activate the gifts by faith and grace, therefore we can take initiative in cooperation with the Holy Spirit and in accordance with the Father's will.

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 believe that Christ lives within me, and that I am washed by the blood. Not in part, but in my whole being. I now bring every thought of my mind and soul into captivity to the mind of Christ within. I will be open to be led by the Holy Spirit to receive a prophetic word from You for my partner. 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 thought 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.)

The purpose of this short and specific prayer is to bind any hindering or religious spirits, and to release faith and anointing. Use whatever words you desire, but it does not have to be long and involved.

Now relax because 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 to 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 an individual.

• 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." Or you might feel an emotion that God feels concerning a situation.

Once you've received your communication from God, note (identify) how you received it. Did you "see," hear" or "feel" or "just know"? Pay close attention to HOW you received this word. Remember that the purpose of this exercise is not to give a word so much as to identify how God communicates to you. Understanding this could be useful for receiving future words.

Dare to share.

Describe what you see; tell what you hear, or share what you feel; being cautious to share only what you receive from God.

Do not worry that it may seem simple or maybe even not make sense to you. Remember it will make good sense to the person for whom God gave it to you. For this exercise we will begin our sharing with either:

• I saw..
• I heard..
• I sensed..
• or I felt..

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.

The recipient(s) of the word should now give feedback as to the accuracy and significance of what was shared.

Repeat steps 5 - 8 with another partner. You may repeat with several different partners, depending on your time constraints. Note whether God uses the same mechanism to communicate (seeing, hearing, feeling or knowing) each time.