Around the start of the Year, most people tend to set goals or New Year’s Resolutions for themselves for the year. But by this time near the end of January, we tend to feel we have failed as most of those goals & resolutions are long forgotten, yet alone unmet and not even begun to be worked on.

I wondered if you had set any goals or resolutions for this year? My goals all need me to develop in courage for them to be achieved. Plus, several of them really need God to come through in partnership with me. Did you set any spiritual goals?

I have made a list of areas in the supernatural and normal spiritual life that I want to grow in this year and wondered if perhaps you would too. We can have too many goals that spread us too thin. Instead, what I have done is written these areas in my diary and on a regular basis, I will glance through them and see how I am going in each area. Some of the areas are completely out of my control eg “Raising the Dead”. I am not purporting to raise at least one person from the dead each month. In fact, there may not even be a dead person I come across all year, especially now that I am no longer nursing in a Coronary Care Unit. But I have listed it so that it is fresh in my memory and if I even get a ‘sniff’ of someone dying that I can ask if I can pray for them to be resurrected back to this life, I will. I am also researching praying for the dead and talking about it with my family (hubby, daughter 14 and son 12 years old) so that we are better prepared for when we are asked to pray for someone who has died. In a future blog post I will share with you about the time when my kids were younger (daughter 9, son 6) when we had the opportunity to go to the City Morgue and pray for a lady who had died to come back to life on earth.

I am a member of our church’s Healing Rooms and on the Board so I regularly get opportunities to pray for healing for people. I see a lot of emotional healing and some physical healing. As a team we have had several people healed totally of cancer. I believe God is asking me to look at several physical conditions that I see a lot and become ‘proficient’ in releasing healing over them. A key to setting this was to look at where my heart lies in where I would love to see healing but also the conditions that people most often ask me to pray for them to be healed of. Am I being faithful in praying for those conditions and seeing them 100% healed?

In the area of use of tongues, I have already seen a huge improvement in worshipping and adoring God on a daily basis through praying in tongues for a significant time each day. I encourage you to give it a go and realise the difference.

Have a look through the areas and see if you would like to set any goals and resolutions for this year from that list. Pray about which areas you want to be stretched in and grow in. At various times throughout the year, I will be addressing these various topics.

I have set myself the acronym CATS to help me in setting goals under each area. I want my goals to require courage and be transformational. I need them to be achievable and measurable. I also need God to meet me in them so there is a degree of the supernatural. In fact, they can only be ‘achieved’ in partnership with God.

• C – Courageous
• A – Achievable & Measureable
• T – Transformational
• S – Supernatural

The areas I have listed that I want to grow in are:

• Intimacy with God – spending specific amount of time daily enjoying being in God’s presence & worshiping. Being aware of feeling/living in a state of peace and inner joy constantly.
• Healing – 90% healing in 3 areas
• Miracles – seeing one physical example of provision at least weekly
• Prophetic – precision accuracy
• Evangelism – using the prophetic to open conversation
• Raising the Dead – prepared & courageous in asking relatives of dead people if I can pray for their relative to be resurrected
• Words of knowledge – names and conditions when healing is required
• Faith – believing for more of the impossible, especially in area of finances & regularly sharing testimonies
• Distinguishing between spirits – educate myself on this and accurately identify demons
• Use of Tongues – spending specific amount time each day praying in tongues
• Weather changes – witnessing further weather changes after praying
• Love – accept and embrace all in my presence, especially my children’s friends
• Character/integrity/holiness – flee from sin

I would love to hear which spiritual areas you are working on in your life. Please feel free to comment below.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Cover the bottom of a shallow cake tin with flour. Give the cake tin to the first person and ask them to write one word (or draw a simple picture) in the flour for the person on their left. Share it with that person. Gently shake the cake tin to flatten out the flour. The person on the left, then repeats the process with the person on their left.

2. Group Activation: As a group, look at the snack that you are going to share as a group and ask God to highlight one aspect or piece of food from it for someone in your group. Ask God to expand that for a prophetic word for them about it. Share the prophetic word with them. If your group doesn’t share supper or a snack together, buy a variety of lollies and as a group look at the lollies.

3. Beginner Activation: Go outside and find a flower or tree that has a fragrance. Spend some time sniffing the aroma and relating it to an aspect of God. Then ask God to highlight a person and how that person relates to the aroma. Share it with that person in an appropriate manner.

4. Intermediate Activation: Go to a bookcase and open a book that has pictures in it. Ask God to reveal to you a prophetic word from the picture on the page you opened to. If the prophetic word is for someone else, release that prophetic word to them as God shows you how to.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight someone to you who has an amazing gift of servant hood. Press into God for an encouraging and edifying prophetic word for this person and also ask God how to deliver that prophetic word to them.