Week 1 Exercise
No Filtering
This week we are doing an exercise to give you the opportunity to practice "not tuning out" God's voice. This is not intended as a prophetic word.... it is intended to help you learn to hear what God might be saying before you filter it out. This is not an end in itself, but a means to make you aware of things you may be filtering out before you have a chance to determine whether or not God was the source of that "thought."
For this week's activation, you will work with a partner, but the partner's purpose is simply to give you the opportunity to speak out (or write out) what you are hearing without filtering it. E.g. your partner exists (for this exercise) solely to give you an "audience" and you likewise exist (in your partner's eyes) to give them an audience. You will share everything you hear, not trying to sort out whether God or your own mind is the source of it. (We will eliminate enemy activity/interference by doing an authority prayer before we start.)
Do not give feedback to your partner.. do not worry about whether
or not everything you give to your partner is accurate. The idea is to
get you to learn not to filter out God's voice.. later on (in future
activations) we will work on sorting out the difference between what is
and what is not God's voice.
STEP BY STEP PROCESS
We will start with a group prayer, then for a few minutes we will pray in the spirit, (I Cor. 14:14) stirring ourselves up, or in other words, fanning the flames. (II Tim. 1:6)
You will then go silent, tune in, and focus on being able to hear and to share what you hear. After this silent time, you will step out in faith and share with your partner. For the next 10 minutes, you will say (or write out) everything that comes to your mind.
Remember, this is a practice session. You are not expected to be a seasoned prophet, nor is your partner. This is merely a time to learn, you are not expected to be an expert, so relax.
As you step out in faith to receive from God, what you receive may be (but is by no means limited to) a thought, a picture, or a word. Don't worry if what you receive makes no sense to you. We are simply sharing what we "get" without evaluating it. Don't worry about whether it comes from God or your own heart... your job for this exercise is simply to learn to listen without filtering out what God is saying.
If you are on the internet, or via email, reach out to your partner in faith believing. If you are in a live group, join hands with your partner. (We prefer you do not use your spouse as a partner, if at all possible.)
Remember, that you are a, Born again, blood washed, redeemed child of God, so if you have Christ within you, you also have the Mind of Christ.
When we ask our Father for bread, he does not give us a stone (Matt 7:9). Because you are God's child, you can safely trust that He will in fact meet you and give you a revelation for you partner when you ask Him to.
Pray this together as a group before you begin to work individually with your partner. The group leader may wish to lead this prayer out loud with the others agreeing silently.
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 receive an impression, thought, or a word from the Holy Spirit within me. I will gladly share it with my partner. 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.
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. Be sure to add this part (you are free to use your own words):
In the name of Jesus, by His power and authority, we take authority over ever demon and interfering spirit and we forbid any enemy activity in this exercise. Satan (and any of his demons) you may NOT interfere in this or imitate God's voice to us as we open our hearts to hear the Holy Spirit. We take authority over fear, anxiety, doubt and unbelief in the name of Jesus and we command you to leave now.Lord, please come and be in charge of all that happens here (in this activation) ...... please release your spirit of prophecy and speak to us.
Get with your partner if you are doing this in a live group.
If you are comfortable with praying in tongues, begin praying in the spirit. Otherwise worship or quietly ask God to speak to you. Look deeply inside, listen closely, see and hear what God is saying. Do this for about a minute. Then, no more praying, only listening, for about 30 to 45 seconds.
This allows you to really tune in.
Each of us should now be willing to step out in faith and share with our partner, what God has given us. Do this one at a time. Decide who will go first.
For the next 10 minutes, write whatever comes to mind, without trying to figure out whether this is you or God.. this is just to get you to practice stopping filtering.
Remember, you will undermining the exercise if you just try to get a "god word".. expect that there will be a mix of both you and God.. you will be speaking some out of your own heart for this exercise. That is ok.. the idea is just to get you learning not to filter out things that might be God .. later on we will work on sorting out the difference between what is you and what is God.
There will not be any interaction or feedback on this exercise.. we are not evaluating yet, we are just practicing hearing everything by not filtering it out.
This exercise may be best done with multiple partners. Switch partners and repeat steps 5-6 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 the steps with this new partner.