I grew up in a conservative Baptist environment so learning, practicing, or witnessing the gift of “prophecy” was never a thing. It wasn’t until coming on the Race that it even became a real thing to me, so to speak. I was pretty skeptical but I wanted to be open to learning about what God may have for me through this gift of the Holy Spirit.
It started in Thailand (month 2). I started praying that God would speak to me through prophecy. Leading up to that point in the Race I had seen other people get prophesied over or even share words from God with others. I kind of felt like I was missing out on something special and still quite didn’t understand this whole thing. I wanted to. I wanted to learn and experience and not just be a skeptical onlooker. But was this a selfish desire? I mean, What is prophecy? Is it really God speaking special revelations through people? How do they know what they’re getting is actually God speaking?
I got my first answer just a couple weeks later (thanks God!). I had my hand on one of our contacts there (American missionary, great man of God) and was praying over him not thinking much of it. He came up to me later and explained that he felt something very powerful happen in his spirit when I touched him. He went on to tell me that I have an anointing when I pray and God will use my hands to heal. The “gift” of healing? Not sure. But that was his words to me. Great, I receive it. Have faith. Pray big. We’ll see what happens.
Two months later I arrived in Malaysia. Our contacts there (again) were absolutely amazing and very in touch with the Holy Spirit and what He is doing in and around them. Their story alone is crazy enough to hear and not believe in Jesus after!
Mr. K gathered my team together one night for a prayer meeting. What we didn’t know was that this man had the gift of prophecy.
I had always been skeptical before, even after my first “encounter” with a personal word of prophecy. But after this night all doubts disappeared for this man said things to us that no one could have known but God.
He went around one-by-one laying hands on each of us, praying for about 5-10 minutes just saying the most amazing things. Things that he could never had known (Note- we had hardly spent more than 5 minutes with this guy since we met him. He literally knew NOTHING about us). He told us things that we had only shared with each other in intimate, vulnerable times or through prayer. Things that totally had to do with our personal gifts, personality, talents, and even better, that were deep desires of our hearts that only God would know.
As he went around prophesying we would all look up at each other every so often and just shake our head and laaaauughhh at how spot on he was. Did he have any idea what he was saying!? This guy is legit! No, this IS God speaking through him. No doubt.
I was the last one. At this point I was just nervous that “he” would run out of things to say and say something like I would be a full time missionary and move overseas and adopt a bunch of kids…. All things that are not the desires of my heart (nothing against em, just not me. Secretly, I was kind of wishing he’d tell me I’d be a Broadway actress or something-ha! He didn’t, btw). Sure enough his words were spot on. Very personal, inspirational, and true. Things I forgot I once dreamed about and desired that he brought to mind and new things that I hadn’t really thought about but was like “yeah, alright I see that! That’s definitely how God created me that can be used to glorify Him!”
Fast forward to now.
I’ve studied the scriptures a bit more and have had more experiences and conversations about prophecy. I’m not going to get into it all, and to each his own with your opinions and beliefs, but this is my blog so I’m going to say what I want (ha).
This is all very new to me but what I have learned is that God is real and IS able to use His children to speak life and revelation to others. He’s even used myself (oh boy). I wouldn’t quite call myself a “prophet” or whatever. But I would say that when God’s spoken to me through His Spirit, instead of ignoring it or thinking what He’s said is strange or wrong, I’ve said “Yes” and have simply acted in obedience to share with others what He’s laid on my heart. Call it prophecy; call it simply the Holy Spirit doing His thing. But the bottom line is to just say Yes. Say Yes when you hear that still, gentle voice. Say Yes when you kind of feel the urge to do or say something but don’t really know if it’s right or if it’s from God. If it’s not sin, God is in everything you do and you can’t lose. Say Yes when you get a word or picture that you feel is divine and can encourage the Body and is in accordance with the Word of God.
I believe God wants to reveal things to us (and others) and do amazing things through His children but we shoot Him down 96% of the time. It’s a shame. Give it a try. Next time you hear, feel, or have the conviction to do or say, have faith and say Yes. You can’t lose.
