How Do I Know That is Really God's Voice?

In this week's activation, we are going to go a little deeper into the same mode we were in during Week 4 and this time, not just share a Word of Knowledge for some known or unknown person in the group but to share a thought for the entire group collectively. This will begin to give us some basic exposure to the experience of sharing a word for our local church body during a service. Reflecting on this particular situation, imagine during this exercise that your are doing just that, and that the "practice church body" you are directing your thought to is your activation group. Again, the word you give should be a thought from the Lord to the whole group collectively, and not just one member of the activation group.

DESCRIPTION:

God speaks personally as well as corporately. Just as we have been learning to share thoughts from the Lord with other individuals, ourselves, and others within a group, this time we will address the entire group.

As you enter the time of "listening" for the Voice of the Lord this week, ask Him to speak whatever He would speak for the benefit of the whole group for the sake of strengthening, encouragement and comfort according to 1 Cor. 14:3. Since this is a "safe environment" for practice and learning, we remind all of this basic admonition again since this is not a time for any corrective or judgmental words. As we have said in past lessons, if you feel you hear something that is corrective or judgmental, please go back to the Lord and ask Him for another word.

As you receive a thought from the Lord this week and your opportunity to share comes, simply "see" yourself standing before the "church" and sharing the thought the Lord has given you for the benefit and blessing of the whole body of believers with which you are associated.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this week's activation is to give you an opportunity to release your faith over a larger group of believers rather than individuals or a small group (even though many of you are in small groups). As you ask the Lord to speak to the group, your thought or word should have application to the group and not just one in the group. In this exercise, some of you may receive a "word" of prophecy and some may receive a simple thought. There is no right and wrong here, just that what you receive pertains to the group as a whole. This is our first experience thus far with giving a corporate word. You will find that this is just as easy as receiving a word for an individual. God is the one who will be faithful to speak what He wants you to share with the group. All you have to do is continue to be a vessel for receiving - as you have been doing all along. We do not want to place limits on what the Holy Spirit may say but rather encourage you to simply listen to whatever He says and then be faithful to speak this to the group.

In this exercise, we feel you will discover that receiving a Word or thought from the Lord is quite easy once you just relax and rest in the faith that God is faithful to communicate and that He usually wants to speak to you more than you want to hear. He will then be faithful to minister to the needs that are on His heart and you will be used as a conduit for His power.

Note for local group leaders:

You might want to consider taping these words as they are given in the group and then transcribe them and make the transcription or tape available to your local pastor.

STEP BY STEP PROCESS OF THIS ACTIVATION:

(This process remains essentially the same as activations from Weeks 1, 3 & 4)

1. Understand That We Will Share Christ Within Us

   Since we are all saved, we have Christ living within us. Let's allow him to minister to us, through us, and to and through our brother or sister in Christ. 1 Peter 4:10 says "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms". We want to be good stewards of God's grace so let's be willing to share Christ within us with our brother or sister.

2. Stir Yourself Up Spiritually

   How do we stir ourselves up?

   1. First, be convinced that it is the Lord's will for every believer to move in the Gifts of the Spirit. Next, be persuaded that you have at least 1 of the 9 gifts. Eph. 4:7-8 tells us: But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."

   2. Realize that no believer is perfect and it is OK to make a mistake. Another look at Jesus' disciples will prove this fact as we saw in our teaching material.

   3. Just know that we all learn by doing

   4. Praying in the Spirit acts as a catalyst to receive the mind of Christ so that our human spirit can receive thoughts, impressions, pictures, etc. from the Holy Spirit

   5. We activate the gifts by faith and grace, therefore it is our responsibility.

3. Sanctification - Activation Prayer

   Pray this prayer with your group as you begin:

   Dear Lord, In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, I come before Your throne. I am washed by the blood. Christ lives within me. Not just in part, but in my whole being. I bring every thought of my mind and soul into captivity to the mind of Christ. I will be open to be led by the Holy Spirit to receive a thought or impression from You for this group or for the corporate church. I will gladly share just what you show me, without adding my own interpretation to it. I will not doubt it nor question it, I'll just be willing to give it. I am a believer, and I expect to receive. I thank You for giving me a word of knowledge from the throne. Amen.

   This prayer releases people from any guilt, fear, condemnation and sense of unworthiness. Since fear and feeling unworthy are the two most hindering factors to people moving in the mind of Christ, this brings a release.

4. Prayer Of Covering And Protection

   The purpose of this short and specific prayer is to bind any hindering or religious spirits and to release faith and anointing. Feel free to use whatever words you choose for this but it does not have to be long and involved.

5. Now, Be Silent And Listen, Look And Feel

   One of the members of the group should agree to be the lead off person and go first. Now relax because this is going to be fun and it will continue to help you "tune in" to the Holy Spirit. Once you go silent, give yourself about 45 - 60 seconds and during this time, look and see what pictures form in your minds eye (the eyes of your heart), listen to what you may "hear" in your Spirit and pay attention to what sense you may have in your "knower".

   Again, here is an explanation of these different modes:

   1. If you are a "seer", you will see pictures in your mind readily. These pictures may require interpretation but you are to give exactly what you see in your mind for now. We will deal with interpretations later.

   2. If you are a "hearer", you will "hear" what the Spirit says. This will not usually be an audible voice but for some of you it could be - on rare occasion. Normally, you just feel like you are hearing something. In actuality, you are not hearing anything audible but you still feel as if you are hearing what you receive. Once you hear, you simply share what you hear the Spirit saying to you for your partner.

   3. If you are a "knower / feeler", you just seem to know something and it feels right but you could not explain to anyone how you know.. you just know! It is like a built in sense of "what is". If you are a knower, you will recognize this pattern. If you are a feeler, you may actually feel something. For instance, God may give you a word of knowledge of a physical healing He wants to do by allowing you to briefly feel the condition that God desires to heal in your own body. This is called a "physical word of knowledge".

6. Now, Give Your Word For The Group According To The Spirit's Leading

   This is the doing part we for which we have prepared ourselves. Now is the time to, one person at a time, speak specifically what the Holy Spirit showed you being cautious not to add any of your own interpretation.

   Again, we re-state our caution from the activation for Week 3 which is: "God does not usually give us judgmental, negative, harsh, corrective, or directive words when we are just learning to move in the prophetic. For the scope of these exercises, these types of words will be STRICTLY OFF LIMITS. If you believe you receive one of these types of words during the activation exercise, assume you have heard wrong and go back to the Lord and ask Him for a different thought from God for your group."

   From our original purpose paragraph, you will be looking for a "word" or thought that will connect with the whole group corporately. This activation will allow the Lord to speak to more broad-ranging issues since the focus of the word is corporate rather than individual.

   Continue to rotate and do this as long as you wish but at minimum - until each person has had the opportunity to share what they received. In most cases, many in the group will receive both individual as well as corporate ministry.

7. Follow Up

   As the members of your group share what they receive, you might want to write down the things which speak to you individually as well as the things you strongly identify with in the corporate setting and discuss them after all have had an opportunity to share what they received. The group can then take the opportunity to pray over these things and see the Lord minister to the needs that were identified corporately.

APPLICATION

Imagine yourself in a worship portion of a meeting in your local church. You feel you hear the Lord quickening something in your spirit for the church body as a whole. Will you have the faith to believe that you can hear accurately enough to be willing to share what you hear with the congregation? Will fear become a deterrent to your being willing to be a vessel for delivering a corporate word? As you review the scripture in 1 Cor. 14:26, "What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church." Do you see yourself fitting into this pattern as the scripture directs? How much more alive in the Spirit would our meetings and gatherings be if instead of coming together to get spiritually what we can from others, we all came together to share what the Lord had already given us for the benefit (overall strengthening) of the Body?

One word of caution on giving corporate words - if any of us are still harboring wounds that "need" to draw attention to ourselves, the enemy will try to work through our wounding to use this type of setting to draw to us instead of pointing toward the Lord and giving Him glory. The safeguard to this is to always be willing to submit anything you receive for the corporate body to the church leadership and allow them to make the determination as to how the word fits into the flow of the service. Always resist using this type of word to direct the flow of the service or groups in the church unless the church leadership gives you release to publicly speak such a word (provided you received this type of word from the Lord to begin with).