As I asked God what He thought of me and how He saw me, I stood still and waited. Almost immediately an amazingly beautiful picture filled my mind of a me as a Princess. I was wearing this stunning pearl blue sparkling long gown with a stunning diamond tiara. But as I looked at this princess, I was most struck with ‘this is how God sees me, as a beautiful princess’. I had never believed I was pretty but it hadn’t been anything I had spent time thinking about. But looking at myself as a princess in this picture in my mind, I realised that God saw me as beautiful, as His princess. He was my daddy and I was His princess and that was all that mattered.

I was so excited. This was such a great picture and made me feel so great, that I couldn’t wait for the rest of the exercises or activations for that night. It was truly transforming for me.

That evening was one of the first times that I had actually heard God for myself about myself. I had heard His audible voice a number of times in relation to a directive for my life, but not like this. I was undertaking a year long course in inner healing and prayer ministry and we were looking at ‘Hearing God’s voice’. The first thing we had to do was ask God how He saw ourselves.

I believe that a great place to start when beginning to prophesy is to hear and feel God’s thoughts towards yourself. This process works really well with all age groups, particularly children. Children don’t seem to have the same ‘hang ups’ as adults do about what God would and wouldn’t do and say, so they find it easier to trust God. They just seem to automatically accept that the first thought through their mind is from God. They asked God and He answered them.

I have listed below three activations or practical exercises to help you begin to hear, feel, sense or see what God is saying to you. It is helpful to provide a quiet place where people can rest or lie down. It is also helpful to have sheets of paper and pencils/crayons/textas that people can use to draw what they feel God saying or showing to them.

First Activation:

1. Find a quiet place to lie down and close your eyes.
2. Ask God, “If you could play any game with me right now, what would it be?”
3. Capture the first thought that goes through your mind, or the first thing you feel.
4. If you are having trouble getting something, ask God to give you a feeling or to bring to mind your favourite game. Use that game in your imagination.
5. Then ask God a question based on that, for example
   1. “God, why did you pick that game?”
   2. “What is special about that game?”
   3. “What do you want to teach me or show me through that game?”
6. Share with someone what you felt or heard. Perhaps draw a picture of what you say or felt or heard. If you are alone, it is great to draw or write down what you felt, saw or heard God saying.

Second Activation:

1. Ask God if He could have a special time with you anywhere in the world right now, where would He take you and why?
2. Capture that first thought that goes through your mind, or the first thing you feel.
3. Ask God some more questions about that place. Eg
   1. “God, why did you pick that place?”
   2. “What’s special about that place?”
   3. “God, what do you want to say to me here in this place you’ve chosen for me?”
4. Share with someone what you felt God say. Perhaps draw a picture of what you felt, saw or heard.

Third Activation:

1. Ask God how He sees you dressed. Ask God what sort of clothes you are wearing, what is on your head, what is on your feet, if there is anything you are carrying in your hand, etc. Ask God what sort of person and character He sees you as.
2. Keep asking God more questions about this. Pay attention to anything you hear, feel, and see.
3. Share with someone or write or draw it in on a sheet of paper.

Today’s blog is part 2 of a 4 part series. Next week I will be covering the practical steps of how to start to hear God for someone else.

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: Get some large paper eg Butchers paper (Ikea has huge rolls of this) and textas. Place a long roll of paper on the floor that’s long enough for a person to lie completely on and ask a person to lie down on the paper. Trace around their body. Write that person’s name on the sheet of paper. Do this for every person. Then spend some time writing on the paper encouraging words about that individual. Ask God to show, tell or give you words that describe that person. Write it on that person’s piece of paper. Then get each person to read aloud what is written or drawn on their piece of paper.

2. Group Activation: Divide the group into equal teams. Select one person from each term to stand at one end of the room. These people are the team captains and will receive a prophetic word. The rest of the team stands at the other end in a line. One at a time, each team member has to race to the other end and give the team captain a prophetic word. Once they have done that, they return to the team and the next team member runs to their team captain and gives them a prophetic word. Keep going until every team member has given a prophetic word to their team captain. The team captain then reports back on what they received, the accuracy but more importantly the flow of the combined prophetic words from their team.

3. Beginner Activation: Quieten your heart before God and ask Him “What do you think of me?”

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to help you activate a sense that you don’t use in the prophetic eg smelling or taste or seeing. Ask God to highlight this and spend time over a series of days practicing receiving from God using this sense.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight an unreached people group to you. Spend time with God hearing from Him for this people group. Then decree and declare out aloud what God has told, shown or given you for this group.