Prophecy is not Fortune Telling.
It’s revelation from God. It’s the ability to hear from God. It’s not about being a psychic. Prophecy is God’s heart for someone regarding a past, present, or future circumstances.
1 Corinthians 14:3
1 Cor 14:24-25
Under the New Covenant and in the Kingdom of God, prophecy builds up, encourages and comforts. Everyone in the Kingdom should learn how prophecy, and therefore practice. Prophecy is not limited to adults: young men and women can as well, and in fact, they have less theological baggage to hinder them from hearing from God!
When practicing hearing from God, do not prophecy negative things, reveal hidden sin, but instead, call people into righteousness and salvation. Encourage, build up, and comfort.
Hearing from God:
- Believe that God wants to speak to you. Job 33:14. He speaks to us through other people, through the Bible – if you read it, through pictures, feelings and even dreams.
- Make sure you are at a peace and have intentional times of quiet. Luke 5:16
- Respond to what God says to you. Luke 6:49a
- Remove hinderances to hearing – (this could be sin, distractions) Heb 12:1
Churches are a safe place to practice prophecy. There is freedom to get it “wrong” or make mistakes. Practicing in the church empowers us to go outside the walls and prophecy with power in the world, where it’s needed.
Here are some examples of prophetic practice as well as pictures of students practicing prophecy.
When I Look at You I See
“When I look at you I see” is a great exercise to help everyone to get involved in sharing prophecies and learn to quickly tune into what God is saying.
Have your group split into two lines that face each other. Designate one line the talking side and the other the listening side.
For a set period of time (about one minute), have the talking side share with the person across from them on the listening side. If they feel like God is saying something to them, share that.
Otherwise, just start describing what they see and feel when they look at the person across from them. Often as people start sharing what they see, God starts to get involved in the process and they start sharing things from God. They just need to get talking first.
When that time period is done, slide one line down so everyone gets a new partner and repeat.
After you’ve done that a certain number of times, exchange roles for the two lines and repeat so everyone gets practice a number of times.
Highlighted Object
Get into groups of 3 or 4, and then start with the first person, and ask the Holy Spirit to highlight something in the room for that person. Look around and notice what the Holy Spirit has highlighted and then prophesy through that object something edifying to that person. Each person gets a turn to receive prophecy.
Example: “That speaker is highlighted. The Lord is raising you up to speak to your generation about the goodness of God.”
Closed Eyes
This one is more advanced, so don’t try it until the kids are good at discerning the Holy Spirit’s voice. One group of teens would stand (or sit) at the front and close their eyes. Other students go up silently, and put a hand on someone’s shoulder.
The student with the closed eyes would wait on the Lord for a word and then just go for it.
Prophetic Art
Sometimes, skip the message and small groups, and just practice prophetic art. Dim the lights, play worship music, and put out art supplies. Ask the HS to stimulate prophetic art and unleash the students.
The Paper One
We’d tape a piece of paper on the back of each students and then others would write anonymous prophetic words on the back of them.
Of course, not everyone receives prophetic words equally and sometimes they don’t get anything at all from the Lord. In those situations, the instruction is to tell something positive, that God would want them to know, something uplifting. In most cases, those ARE prophetic words or quickly turn into one. Sometimes kids were silly, of course, or scared to try, and there’s grace for that.
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