How do you overcome your fear of sharing prophecies with people? Here are 3 strategies to help you get it right (two-part series).
Many folks feel afraid or fearful when they want to share prophecies with people. Take this comment I received recently when I shared a prophecy for this year:
“I recently gave words to a group of people – for some it was very significant. One lady said she reads it every day. That is humbling, scary and exciting, because I didn’t feel as if I knew what I was doing.
In fact, I spent two days writing them and was a wreck afterwards, very scared that I wrote out of my own physical knowledge or that they would be offended for the words being so personal.”
- Elize
It’s perfectly natural to feel like that, whether you’ve shared prophecy before or if it’s something new to you. And if you feel that way, it’s good to know that you’re not alone!
However, there are ways to overcome that fear and that’s the subject of this article.
In this two-part series, you’ll find 3 strategies to overcome your fear when you share prophecies with other people.
Read on to find out more.
Share Prophecies With People Supernaturally
I don’t know about you, but I don't want to live merely in the natural.
I want to live in the power of the supernatural!
Living lives free from fear is a big part of the supernatural lifestyle. And I want to tackle that head-on by sharing 2 strategies in this post (I’ll cover the third strategy next time).
One strategy is general in nature and will work for anyone. The other two will address two common issues:
- What to do if you lack the confidence to share prophecies.
- What to do if you’ve been hurt by rejected prophecies in the past.
But before we get into that we need to find out what makes you tick. We need to prayerfully identify why you’re afraid.
Identify Why You’re Afraid To Share Prophecies With People
If you want to overcome a fear, you need to understand why you’re fearful.
As Jesus said, “know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.
“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”” (John 8:31-32, ESV)
In the original context of John chapter 8, the emphasis is on knowing the bible and the truth about Jesus. But it’s also about being set free from our fears and the lies that we believe, in the here and now.
When we abide in Jesus and in his word, we build ourselves up. That’s the essence of discipleship.
Along the way, Jesus reveals truths about himself, but also truths about us.
In my personal experience, I've discovered that he often uncovers my fears and confronts them with his truth.
The First Step To Overcome Fear Is To Name It
God knows that naming your fear is the first step to getting free of it.
That’s because behind every fear is a lie. And once you’ve identified the fear, the lie is soon brought out into the light.
You may be thinking, “How do I know why I’m scared? All I know is I just clam up when I try to do this!”
However, there’s a really simple way to find out:
Just work out what questions you are asking yourself (and asking God).
It may sound strange, but the questions you ask about sharing prophecy tend to break down into 2 broad categories.
Here’s a simple exercise you can do to explore that and work out which applies to you.
Identify Your Fear Exercise
Start off in prayer and ask the Lord to reveal the truth to you.
Then ask which of these two sets of questions most applies to you when you want to share a prophecy:
Set 1:
Set 2:
Study the questions for a second now and decide which set bothers you most.
Don’t think about it too hard, just look at the questions again and make a choice. And don’t worry if both sets feel just as bad as the other, we’ll deal with that in a minute!
2 Reasons Why You’re Afraid To Share Prophecies With People
Still with me? Good. Here’s the answer you’ve been looking for:
Question Set 1
If you felt the Set 1 questions were most applicable to you, you’re most afraid of the prophecy itself.
You’re worried about getting the prophecy right.
You’re not sure whether it’s God’s voice you can hear or just your own thoughts. You may even be worried that it could be the enemy speaking to you, instead.
Question Set 2
If you felt question Set 2 resonated most with you, then you’re fearful of the people you might share it with.
You’re reasonably confident that you can hear God’s voice, but you’re not sure how people might take it.
Perhaps they won’t understand or they’ll be offended. Worse still, they might think you’re a crank and stop being friends with you.
What If I Got Both Sets Of Questions?
First of all: it’s ok!
Take a deep breath because again, you’re not alone.
Many, many prophetic Christians have been where you are - and I’m one of them.
You can get through this and confront your fears, with God’s help.
Remember:
“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10)
With that in mind, let’s see what we can do about those fears!
(P.S. If you want to understand more on what the joy of the Lord really means, I found this great article from around the web.)
Practical Steps To Share Prophecies With People
The good news is that we can take some easy practical steps to help combat these fears.
These boil down to 3 strategies you can use:
- Boost your faith by learning to listen to God.
- Get confident by writing down your prophecies.
- Deal with past hurts by declaring the truth over yourself.
We’re going to look at all these strategies, but each one could become an article in its own right.
In fact, I think that dealing with past hurts deserves special treatment, so I’ll save that for next time and stick with the first two today.
1. Boost Your Faith By Learning To Listen To God (Practice Before You Share Prophecies With People)
First of all, it’s a lot easier to share prophecies with people if you practice doing it by yourself.
Learn To Hear God’s Voice Clearly
Remember that prophecy is simply hearing God speak and then sharing what you hear with someone.
So if you take time to listen to God, then you can practice sharing prophecy through prayer, in the comfort of your own home.
Take Time To Really Listen
When I say listen to God I mean really listen, not just hear.
It will take more than a couple of minutes to get to know God’s voice.
So make sure you have quality time set aside for him. And choose to listen to God more than you ask him for your prayer requests.
Form Good Habits
Schedule a definite time for this in your diary, every day, if possible.
It won’t happen by accident, so you have to be intentional about it if you want to know what God is saying.
If this is something you struggle with, you may find my book useful.
Pray For Others
Just because you are alone in prayer doesn’t mean you can’t prophesy!
Pray for other people and declare prophecies over them from a distance.
Learn to speak out these prophecies in this safe place and declare them out loud as the truth!
Keep doing this and the Lord will grow the abilities that he has placed in you.
2. Get Confident By Writing Down Your Prophecies
So what if you’ve been doing all the above but you’re still not feeling confident about taking the next step?
Write Things Down
Begin by writing down what God says to you.
A simple way to start is to write down anything that comes into your head.
Don’t worry about whether it’s from God or not, just get it down on paper first.
Next go back through what you have written, pray and ask the Lord what is from him and what is from you.
Scribble out anything that isn’t from God and keep what remains!
Start A Prophetic Prayer Journal
The next step is to make a habit of writing down prophecy by putting it all into a prophetic prayer journal.
You don’t have to write in your journal every day, but try to capture everything the Lord says to you.
Review Your Prophecies
Adding entries to your prophetic prayer journal is one step, another is to review those entries.
This will encourage you and remind you of God’s goodness while building up your faith.
Schedule time in your diary to look back through your journal on a regular basis (I have a repeating task on my phone, so I don't miss it).
It’s up to you whether you want to do this every week or every month, just make sure you do it!
Take A Step Of Faith
Sooner or later you’re going to have to face this: in order to share your prophecy, you’ll need to talk to people!
So practice by yourself, but seek God for opportunities to share what he says to you.
Ask him who he wants you to share your prophecies with, how he would like you to do that and when would be the best time to do it.
Get Feedback
You could just share your prophecy and then run away.
However, if you do that, you may feel just as scared the next time you do it.
So ask for feedback from the person you are sharing with.
If you got it right or at least, partially right, you’ll be encouraged and your confidence will grow.
Even they didn't understand your prophecy at all, most people will feel loved and supported anyway. So it’s still a win!
Summing Up How To Overcome Your Fear When You Share Prophecies With People
Today I’ve shared 2 strategies to overcome your fears about sharing prophecy with others.
Whether you’re learning to listen to God more or need a bit more confidence, I hope you can see there is a way forward.
If you’re waiting with bated breath and want to know what to do if you’ve been hurt by rejected prophecies, then look out for my next post (coming soon).
Share Prophecies With People: Your Turn
For now, if you want to go deeper with prophecy, then I’m excited to share with you a new FREE online mini-course.
It’s titled Learn How To Prophesy and it’s based on my most popular blog post of the same name.
Inside this comprehensive guide, you’ll find out more about prophecy itself, why it's worthwhile and how to do it. It’s kind of a “4 Steps Prophecy School Lite”!
Note: You’ll need to register a username and password on the website in order to access the course, but don’t worry it won’t cost you a penny.
You can find it here.