October 19

3 Keys To Unlock Your Gift Of Prophecy: Start In Worship

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Today begins a brand new series, "3 Keys To Unlock Your Gift Of Prophecy”.

Over the next three posts, I'm going to share with you three simple tools or keys for you to use:

Together they will:

  • boost your ability to hear God, and
  • open up new possibilities for this essential spiritual gift.

And today, I’m going to start with the first, and most important, of those keys: worship.

Keys to unlock your gift of prophecy

Unlock Your Gift Of Prophecy: FREE Blueprint

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Unlock Your Gift Of Prophecy: Worship Affects Prophecy

There’s a well known bible verse that I believe reveals something about the gift of prophecy, and it’s this:

“Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’” (Matthew 22:37)

This is repeated throughout scripture, with minor variations, and the apostle Luke adds “with all your strength” (Luke 10:27) into the mix.

In the example from Matthew’s gospel, Jesus went on to say that "this is the first, and greatest commandment”.

His words demonstrate that our God holds love close to his heart, so how we worship him becomes of utmost importance.

We are to worship the Lord with our whole being: our hearts, souls and minds. The natural implication is that our spirit is also intimately involved.

For our purposes today, they also indicate that our alignment with God is crucial to unlocking the spiritual gift of prophecy.

Unlock Your Gift Of Prophecy: Align With God

When we prophesy, we need to do that out of God’s heart of love.

But when life’s difficulties overwhelm us, then our judgement can become skewed. We may try to use the gifts of the spirit in our own strength and end up doing damage to people, instead of bringing a blessing.

However, Worship draws us closer to God and alters our mindset, so we see others with his eyes.

Specifically, worship creates alignment with God, so we line up with his desires and intentions:

  • 1
    Our spirit becomes aligned with God’s spirit.
  • 2
    Our heart (and emotions) become aligned with God’s heart.
  • 3
    Our mind becomes aligned with the mind of Christ.

Here, I will focus most on our spirit’s alignment with God’s spirit.

When we are aligned with God in this way, we live according to the spirit (Romans 8:5). And when we do that, operating in the gifts of the spirit and the gift of prophecy comes easily.

When we fall out of alignment with God, the gifts of the spirit are muted, and we are left leaning on fleshly thinking and “good deeds”, empty of eternal value.

The prophets in bible times experienced this effect.

Examples From The Prophets

All the prophets of old had an incredibly close relationship with their God. They heard directly from him, they saw the world around them from his Heavenly perspective, and sometimes they were brought right into his throne room.

But sometimes, they were so preoccupied with their own issues, or even with the negative visions the Lord showed them of the state of the nations and peoples around them, that they were deeply affected in their spirits.

It had an impact on their spirits and emotions:

Ezekiel, having seen his visions of God's throne and Jerusalem, was overwhelmed and unable to speak or move for several days. (Ezekiel 3:15)

It was only when “the word of the Lord came to me” at the end of 7 days, that Ezekiel recovered and was able to hear him again.

This indicates something was imparted from God to Ezekiel, through his “word”. It also implies Ezekiel was revived in, and from, a place of meditation and intimacy.

On the other hand, Jonah became upset with God, when the people of Nineveh repented, and the Lord refused to punish them:

“Jonah was not happy that God saved the city. Jonah became angry. He complained to the Lord and said, ‘Lord, I knew this would happen… just kill me. It’s better for me to die than to live.’”

(Jonah 4:1-4, NIV)

Jonah had forgotten that God is love, because Jonah had ceased to worship him. Instead, he behaved like a petulant child, despite the Lord’s grace towards him.

Unlock Your Gift Of Prophecy: How Worship Unlocks Your Gift

These stories serve to illustrate why worship is such a key for prophets and the prophetic gifts.

If we spend our time looking at the world around us and receiving revelation about people's true hearts, minds and motives, then we can become depressed.

However, if we keep drawing ourselves back to God, focussing on him in worship, then we are enlightened, encouraged, and lifted up in the process.

Worship is effective at doing the following things:

  • 1
    It lifts our gaze away from the world (and away from our problems), to the beauty of the Lord.
  • 2
    It brings us closer in to God and into his presence, where we receive his peace.
  • 3
    We are reminded of Jesus’ mercy, and of all that he achieved for us.
  • 4
    God receives glory, and this attracts the presence of Holy Spirit.
  • 5
    When Holy Spirit draws near, we learn his thoughts, his feelings and how to hear his voice.

Your Turn: Start In Worship

Worship is the catalyst for us to be filled with, and anointed by, Holy Spirit.

When we worship the Lord, our spirits become aligned with him and we can operate in his gifts.

This is true for all the spiritual gifts, and particularly for the gift of prophecy, but it also leads us on to a greater truth:

If you want to learn to prophesy, and do it well, you need to spend lots of quality time in God's presence.

Next time, I’ll take us further in, and discuss the second key to unlock your gift of prophecy. This will help us to align our heart and emotions with God’s heart.

I’ll also talk about a new opportunity I’ve got lined up for you, coming very soon.

But you don’t have to wait for the next article: you can start now!

"If you want to learn to prophesy, and do it well, you need to spend lots of quality time in God's presence."

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Start Now With Worship

  • 1
    Stop whatever you’re doing, turn your attention to God and spend some time in worship.
  • 2
    Pray, sing, speak out a bible verse or truth about God, even if it’s just for a couple of minutes.
  • 3
    Then let us know what happened, by leaving your answer to this question, below:

What difference did your worship time make to your day?


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  • Bringing my day into alignment with God, through focus on how big He is! Nothing can get past Him, nothing is too big for Him, nothing is beyond His reach!

  • I followed through with your instructions and did some spontaneous worship and then read a verse and then prayed.
    I felt something like heat on my forehead.

    • That sounds like the action of Holy Spirit to me!
      Feeling a sensation of heat or tingling on head or hands is quite a common manifestation.
      Not that you have to have that happen every time in order to experience God, but it’s comforting and encouraging when it does.
      Thanks for letting us know!
      Blessings,
      Tim

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